The mammoth in the patent system
This could well be the new century of the woolly mammoth, the most iconic of our extinct species, which is set to make an epic return to our world. The hairy, spiral-tusked humongous beasts that once ranged across the icy northern hemisphere and even parts of South America some half a million years ago will be soon found wandering in Siberia, we are told. True, Steven Spielberg brought the dinosaur back and firmly planted it in our consciousness with his blockbuster film. Jurassic Park was pure fantasy; the woolly mammoth, however, is for real. The colossal ancestor of the elephant will be brought back from extinction, in some form, and released in select places, according to US journals and academic researchers.
De-extinction, which is the term for bringing back long vanished species through gene-editing tools and reproductive technologies, is coming into investor spotlight. Money is flowing into such ventures but success will hinge on a critical factor: patents. Will the US Patent Office grant a patent on the woolly mammoth, actually a variant of the historical beast, and allow a company to profit from a monopoly on something that was once natural to the environment?
Woolly mammoths roamed across our ancient world for millennia and were known to flourish till 20,000 years ago, but within 10,000 years their numbers had dwindled to half and were reduced to isolated populations off the coasts of Siberia and Alaska. They disappeared around 4,000 years ago. A splendid documentary, Titans of the Ice Age, captures the majesty of the mammoths and other animals like dire wolves (now a major focus of de-extinction experiments), ground sloths and sabre-toothed cats that dominated the harsh Pleistocene Age.
How does de-extinction work? Researchers use DNA from old bones or from museum specimens and use gene-editing technology— CRISPR, of course—to add to ancestral gene variants of a closely related existing species. The result is not exactly the mammoth or dire wolf of yore, but a likeness that will allow companies investing in such research to claim that it is close to the original. Although research on mammoth de-extinction started more than a decade ago at Harvard, no modified mammoths have emerged, because re-engineering the elephant is an enormous challenge.
Some companies are gaining the spotlight with clever marketing and inflated but politically correct environmental claims. Colossal Biosciences, a Texas-based startup that came into being in 2021, says its gene-editing technology will help it to produce elephants that are mammoth lookalikes, which it plans to release in Siberian nature parks. This announcement in April set off a blaze of publicity for the de-extinction company which has already raised US $400 million from investors. The commercial gains are expected to be extremely rewarding because Colossal is securing intellectual property rights (IPR) on “nearly every aspect of its creations, even the names it gives its animals”, says the MIT Technology Review in a recent report. The journal discovered that Colossal Biosciences had filed for trademarks covering another of its transgenic animals, an extra-hairy mouse, which it showed off this year as evidence of progress on its mammoth project. Trademarked as “Mammouse”, if used in the sale of toys, and “Woolly Mouse”, if used as a motif in clothing apparel, the company is showing savvy marketing skills that appear to gloss over its scientific shortcomings.
Most interesting, however, is Colossal Biosciences’ claim that its de-extinction projects will result in huge environmental benefits. In a response to the MIT Technology Review, the company’s chief executive officer (CEO) states that when a herd of mammoths—never mind that we have not seen even one so far—is released in large nature reserves in Siberia, it would trample the ground in such a way that it “would maintain the permafrost, keeping global warming gases trapped and offering the chance to earn carbon credits”. It sounds fanciful but the CEO says that each mammoth could generate $2 million in “carbon capture services” and that Colossal expects to garner more profits from tourist spending if it can de-extinct other legendary species such as the dodo. If it succeeds in reviving the dodo, a flightless bird that once inhabited Mauritius, Colossal will have the added satisfaction of extinguishing the phrase “dead as a dodo”!
Flights of fancy, though, appear to be Colossal Biosciences’ forte. It does not have much to show for its efforts at de-extinction so far although it has managed to generate much controversy, both scientific and ethical, over its projects. For instance, its claim that it has re-engineered the dire wolf, the world’s first successful de-extinction project, has been slammed by scientists. They say that the genomes of the company’s gray wolf contain only a few bits of dire wolf DNA and that the two species are different “by several million DNA letters”, according to the MIT Technology Review.
That may be correct, but is the contrary opinion gaining any traction in the midst of the hype? The more sinister aspect is the web of patents that Colossal Biosciences is throwing over the de-extinction game. It has already applied for patents on the mammoth (but apparently not on its dire wolf) and the worry is that it could hamper any research into extinct species. One legal expert points out that the company’s patent application is an attempt to secure rights to the use of extinct DNA that could give “unprecedented legal monopoly over wild animals”. The warning is dire. He says the patent claim “is not just about science, but about who owns de-extinction”.
This is because the patent claims of the company are very broad, as are those of most bioscience companies. Jacob Sherkow, a law professor at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, notes that Colossal’s claims do not cover any specific method or technology but are aimed at securing patent rights for any re-engineered animals that are created with genetic changes that cover a wide spectrum of alterations, from hair colour and body size to health traits. In short: any animal with woolly mammoth genes would be covered by the claim.
The US Supreme Court has since 1980 allowed patents on a variety of animals—from the famous OncoMouse to genetically altered pigs that can grow organs for transplants. So why not on the woolly mammoth? Just because it was raised from the dead?