Calls for patents to enforce openness in gene-drive tech
The co-author on a gene-drive tech patent filed by MIT and Harvard, MIT's Kevin Esvelt, has proposed using patents in the field to force those looking to use the system to disclose their plans before they perform any experiments. Using CRISPR technology, gene drives force a particular gene to be reproduced in an animal's young, enabling scientists to alter or eradicate entire species. Concerned over the potential for "gene spills" or mishandling of the system, Esvelt insisted it is "essential we don’t develop ecological technologies behind closed doors". 

Gene drives use the DNA-slicing technology called CRISPR to force a “selfish” gene to spread in wild populations of animals as they reproduce. Speaking at EmTech MIT 2016 on Wednesday, Esvelt said he’s worried about an ecological accident—or simply premature use of the technology.

Now he’s proposing the unprecedented step of using patents to require university scientists to disclose their intentions before they carry out any experiments.

“It’s essential we don’t develop ecological technologies behind closed doors,” says Esvelt. “We need a space to discuss what is going on in laboratories and what they are planning.”

In the U.S., academic scientists are able to mostly ignore patents. That’s because it is a tradition not to enforce intellectual-property claims on basic researchers. However, the law says that a patent holder can stop anyone from making or using a technology.

Esvelt says he wants to test the law. His demand: be 100 percent open or work on something else.

I asked Jacob Sherkow, a law professor at New York Law School, if the plan could work. “The short answer is yes, you can require licensees of a patent to conduct themselves in the way you would like,” he says. “Although he might have to sue people to take a license and comply with him.”

Esvelt likens his initiative to “copyleft,” a way some software developers, instead of trying to make money, use their copyright to make sure their code stays open-source. He says he would also require labs to follow safety procedures that he and other scientists agreed on in 2015 to prevent gene-drive creations from escaping.

Esvelt might have the clout to make it happen. He is a coauthor on a gene-drive patent application filed by Harvard University. He says he is also talking to lawyers at Harvard and MIT about using those schools’ basic patents on CRISPR gene editing to enforce his openness plan.