patents
GMO Patents: Organism specifc or generic
<p>If a patentee actually expresses recombinant gene-X in organism-A does that give him the right to also claim this gene-X in other organisms?</p>

<p>All other organisms? If not how broadly? Too broad sounds unfair: Just because you successfully expressed said gene-X in organism-A does not mean expressing it in organism-B is a task of trivial difficulty. </p>

<p>e.g. If I insert a gene into one bacterium do I get to claim the patent over all bacteria?</p>

<p>I know patents are messy and there's probably a lot of case by case variation. But are there any general principles here?</p>

<p>e.g. Are there past examples of one Biotech Company expressing a foreign gene via organism-A to sell a metabolite and another Company also expressing the same gene via organism-B? </p>

<p>Patentability requires both that the patent application enables others to implement the claimed invention, and that the invention is novel and non-obvious in light of the prior art.</p>

<p>Enablement (which is the part you've asked about) is not determined based on the actual success of expressing the recombinant gene, but rather on whether the application describes how to achieve this expression without undue experimentation. So, if you describe a technique that can be easily applied to organism-B, then you've enabled expressing that gene in organism-B. If, on the other hand, expression in organism-B is not "a task of trivial difficulty" as you put it, then expression in organism-B is not enabled and could not be claimed.</p>
