SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Business > Biotechnology -- Sweeping stem cell patents rejected: "The patent office agreed with the challengers, stating the patents should not have been issued because the science they covered was not unique.
The patents were issued in 1998, 2001 and last year for work by University of Wisconsin scientist James Thomson. They cover the process used to pull stem cells out of fertilized embryos. They also cover the embryonic stem cells themselves, making it necessary for researchers to pay a licensing fee to use the cells no matter where the cells are obtained.
These patents, combined with federal funding restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research, have been cited as the two biggest obstacles to the growth of a field that scientists hope will lead to therapies for diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson's and cancer.
According to patent office reviewers, scientific articles published before the first Wisconsin patent was issued should have made it obvious to someone in the field how to pull stem cells out of a primate embryo and coax them to live for a year in a petri dish."
