A war of sorts has started brewing among the cloning facilities over who actually owns the patent to clone animals.
The Texas firm, Start Licensing, that is credited with cloning Dolly the sheep is suing the South Korean biotech company, RNL Bio, that has cloned several dogs, including cloning the world’s first dog for personal companionship (the 3 clones are to be born later this month via a surrogate mother). Start Licensing claims to hold the patent rights to clone dogs, cats and endangered species. The technology was developed at the Roslin Institute for the Dolly project.
BioArts, a California company claims that it has obtained exclusive licenses for the cloning of mammals using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technology from Start Licensing. BioArts is currently running an online auction to clone five dogs, with the bidding starting at $100,000.
RNL could potentially block BioArts from cloning dogs using its patent from Seoul National University (SNU) & they claim that they could sue BioArts and its Korean subcontractors, Sooam BioTech Research Center, led by disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk, as early as this month.
Anytime there is substantial money, prestige & notoriety involved, lawsuits abound. And cloning is historic!
