Legal Considerations in Commercializing Gene-Edited Plants: IP Protection, Licensing, Regulatory, and Compliance Issues

Over 130 attendees worldwide attended our two-day seminar on Legal Considerations in Commercializing Gene-Edited Plants where we took attendees through a real world hypothetical explaining the use of gene editing in plant breeding. We covered the science behind gene-editing technology as well as the related IP, licensing, regulatory and compliance issues.

Gene editing has the potential to revolutionize agriculture and food production. However, to be successful, innovators need to address the challenges of IP protection and licensing as well as regulatory hurdles in order to successfully commercialize a product. Day one of this two-part webinar took attendees through a real world hypothetical that explained the use of gene editing in agriculture and we discussed freedom-to-operate and licensing issues for edited plants. On day two, we took a deep dive into the IP protection for edited plants and commercialization requirements for edited plants and food products through a discussion of CRISPR licenses, FDA, USDA, and EPA regulatory approvals and other commercialization issues.

Day 1: Tuesday, June 8, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. PDT

• Michael Ward, global head of Morrison & Foerster’s Life Sciences Practice Group, head of our Patent Practice Group, co-chair of our Intellectual Property Practice Group and co-chair of our global AgTech + Food Industry practice
• Stephen Dellaporta, founder of Verinomics, a genomics and computational biology company serving the agriculture sector
• Otis Littlefield, Senior Of Counsel, Patent, San Francisco
• Matt Karlyn, Partner, Life Sciences Transactions + Licensing, Boston
• Wolfgang Schoenig, Partner, Life Sciences Transactions + Licensing, Berlin

Day 2: Wednesday, June 9, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. PDT

• Michael Ward, global head of Morrison & Foerster’s Life Sciences Practice Group, head of our Patent Practice Group, co-chair of our Intellectual Property Practice Group and co-chair of our global AgTech + Food Industry practice
• William Tarantino, Partner, Environmental Litigation + Regulatory, San Francisco
• Wolfgang Schoenig, Partner, Life Sciences Transactions + Licensing, Berlin
• Bethany Hills, Partner, FDA Regulatory + Life Sciences Compliance, New York

Supplemental materials can also be found on our life sciences blog and Food + Ag capabilities.