Gene drive inventor will aggressively enforce his patent to ensure technique is used ethically

Kevin Esvelt has helped develop a technology called “gene drive”…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.”

[T]he 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.

Esvelt likens his initiative to “copyleft,” a way some software developers…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.

“Some scientists might not like being so open, but most say ‘Okay, so long as everyone else is too,” says Esvelt. Biologists can be highly secretive, but it’s often because they are afraid of being scooped.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Stop “Gene Spills” Before They Happen

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