Editas Medicine said the USPTO reaffirmed an earlier PTAB decision finding Broad Institute-affiliated inventors were first to conceive CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in eukaryotic cells, including human cells. The update follows a Federal Circuit remand that faulted PTAB for conflating invention conception and reduction to practice. The dispute dates to 2015, when the University of California, the University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier challenged Broad’s priority and sought a patent interference. Editas licenses core CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cas12a intellectual property from the Broad, and said the ruling leaves other in-licensed Broad patents outside the interference unaffected. Editas CEO Gilmore O’Neill characterized the decision as reinforcing confidence in the company’s IP while it advances in vivo programs such as EDIT-401, which has reported greater than 90% mean LDL cholesterol reduction in non-human primates. The ruling matters for a large share of gene-editing freedom-to-operate discussions in the US. While the decision is favorable to Broad-priority positions, the broader patent landscape for CRISPR remains complex, with multiple overlapping families and jurisdictions continuing to shape commercialization strategies.