Commitments and Contingencies

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Commitments And Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Commitments and Contingencies

6. Commitments and Contingencies

In July 2014, the Company licensed from Caribou Biosciences, Inc. (“Caribou”) certain IP (the “Caribou License”) and entered into an arrangement under which Caribou provided research and development services. On October 17, 2018, the Company initiated an arbitration proceeding with JAMS against Caribou, asserting that Caribou is violating the terms and conditions of the Caribou License, as well as other contractual and legal rights, by using and seeking to license to third parties technology covered by two patent families (described in, for instance, PCT No. PCT/US2016/015145 and PCT No. PCT/US2016/064860, and related patents and applications) relating to specific structural or chemical modifications of guide RNAs, that were purportedly invented or controlled by Caribou, in the Company’s exclusive human therapeutic field. Caribou asserted that the two families of IP are outside the scope of the Company’s field of use under the license rights granted to the Company under the Caribou License (the “Caribou Arbitration”). In accordance with the Caribou License, the Company submitted a demand for arbitration seeking among other relief a declaration that the disputed IP was included within the scope of its field of use under the Caribou License.

On September 26, 2019, the Company announced that the arbitration panel issued an interim award concluding that both the structural and chemical guide RNAs modification technologies were exclusively licensed to the Company by Caribou pursuant to the Caribou License. After concluding that the chemical modification technology was within the scope of the Company’s exclusive license from Caribou, the arbitration panel nevertheless noted that its decision could delay or otherwise adversely impact the development of these modified guide RNAs as human therapeutics. It also noted that the Company currently is not using these modified guide RNAs in any of its active programs. Thus, solely with respect to the particular modified guide RNAs, the arbitration panel stated that it will declare that Caribou has an equitable “leaseback,” which it described as exclusive, perpetual and worldwide (the “Caribou Award”). However, the Caribou Award will be subject to terms, including Caribou’s future payments to the Company, to be negotiated by the parties or, if unsuccessful, subject to additional arbitration proceedings. 

The Caribou Award by the panel does not include the structural guide modifications IP at issue in the arbitration, any other IP exclusively licensed or sublicensed by Caribou to the Company under the Caribou License (including but not limited to the foundational CRISPR/Cas9 IP co-owned by University of California, University of Vienna and Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier), or any other of the Company’s IP.

Upon, and subject to the terms of, a final award, which will follow these negotiations between the parties and potential further legal proceedings, Caribou could be able to use the modified guide RNAs at issue for human therapeutics. Due to the death of one of the panel members, any future proceedings may require the appointment of a new arbitrator, which may delay any final resolution. Either the Company or Caribou may challenge the arbitration panel’s decisions under limited circumstances.

Other than with regards to the technologies in dispute, the interim award has no effect on the Company’s rights or Caribou’s obligations under the Caribou License. The interim award has no impact on any of the Company’s current programs.