Cloning clash comes to a head
The U.S. firm that claims to hold sole worldwide rights to commercially clone dogs says steps are being taken to sue the Korean firm that has cloned a dog for a California woman, the Korea Times reports today.
Start Licensing, a U.S. firm that issued a cloning license to the American firm BioArts International, has filed a cease and desist letter against RNL Bio, a Seoul company working with Seoul National University, which produced the world's first cloned dog in 2005.
RNL Bio said that it had not been notified of any legal action, and hinted it would countersue, according to the Times.
RNL, a Seoul-based biotech firm, said in February that it had received an order from a U.S. woman to produce a genetic copy of her late pitbull terrier, named Booger ― three clones are expected to be born sometime later this month via a surrogate mother.
Start Licensing, a Texas-based firm claiming to be holding the patent rights to clone dogs, cats and endangered species, developed at the Roslin Institute for the Dolly project, filed a formal cease and desist letter to RNL Bio, June 30, through a Korean law firm, sources told the newspaper.
RNL Bio says the dogs will be the first commercially cloned, while BioArts CEO Lou Hawthorne says his clones of his family dog Missy were the first produced commercially.
BioArts, a California-based company, claims 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. And last week it offered a free cloning to a retired Canadian policeman whose dog helped in the rescue effort during 9/11. He was chosen from entries in a company sponsored essay contest.
Ra Jeong-chan, president of RNL, said that his company hasn't been officially contacted by the Korean law firm representing Start Licensing. He said his company could sue BioArts and its Korean subcontractors, Sooam BioTech Research Center, led by scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who was part of the Seoul National University team that cloned the first dog, but was later fired for falsifying data.
