Madison, Wis. – The legal wheels still have some spinning to do, but suddenly the prospect of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation not owning three key stem cell patents, or deriving licensing income from them, seems very real.
The decision by United States Patent and Trademark Office examiners to reject WARF’s patent claims might still be overturned or modified, but for the first time since University of Wisconsin-Madison stem cell researcher James Thomson developed a method for isolating and defining human embryonic stem cells, some in Wisconsin are wondering whether the university actually has done something groundbreaking.