<h4>Chapter 198: Moratorium (3)</h4>


    At Seoul Central District Court, today was the first day of arguments in an important case: the ten billion dorwsuit between A-GenBio and Atmox. A-GenBio’s defense team, including Park Joo-Hyuk, rushed inside. Only three defensewyers were actually participating in the hearing, with most of them listening from the audience. Atmox’s CEO came, but he was also listening from the audience.


    The trial itself was being carried out by threewyers. Lee Chun-Myung, the judge, had just reread the opening statements from A-GenBio, the intiff, and Atmox, the defendant, beforeing into court. It was a very intimidating case as everyone in the world was focused on this case. On top of that, it was also a very difficult trial.


    <i>‘Based on thewsuit itself, it’s a no-brainer that Atmox should providepensation, but...’</i>


    Lee Chun-Myung thought as he reviewed the preparatory documents.


    <i>‘It’s difficult to determine the amount ofpensation.’</i>


    The intiffs were asking for a whopping ten billion dors.


    <i>‘Twelve trillion won.’</i>


    It was enough to buy you a medium-sizedpany. Lee Chun-Myung wondered whether it would be this much if he added up all the ims he’d seen in the civilwsuits he had handled.


    He thought A-GenBio was crazy when he first heard the amount of the im, but it was a different story when he read theint and preparation documents in detail. It was just that A-GenBio was apany that was experiencing abnormal growth and explosive sales, and it was just that Cas9 was too powerful.


    “This case is brought by defendants Atmox, a corporation, and Mr. He Jiankui, an individual. It is divided into two. Based on the representative selection system, I would like to inform you that Atmox was chosen as the representative. Mr. Wang Wei, the CEO of Atmox, will be representing the defendants,” said Lee Chun-Myung.


    The citizens and reporters, who filled the courtroom, were listening carefully to the judge or taking notes without missing anything.


    Lee Chun-Myung began the trial.


    “Counsel for the intiff, please briefly exin your im.”


    “Yes, I will state theint we submitted in advance.”


    Park Joo-Hyuk stood up.


    “The defendant utilized the patented invention Cas9, for which A-GenBio has the exclusive right to use, without authorization, resulting in the birth of a gically engineered baby. As a result, the intiff has suffered a significant setback in its subsequent research using Cas9, and imspensation for the amount of damages.”


    “Thank you. Defendant’s counsel, please respond to the intiff’s im,” Lee Chun-Myung said.


    “Yes, Your Honor. The details are in the response we submitted,” Atmox’swyer spoke. “To summarize, the defendants admit to the infringement of property rights by using Cas9, a patented invention, but the intiff’s im is absurdlyrge. The scope of the damages should be limited to the loss of property or reduction in thepany’s revenue caused by the defendant’s actions.”


    “Yes, thank you,” Lee Chun-Myung said. “The defendants have admitted to infringing on patent rights by using a patented invention without a license. Then, the issue of this case is going to be deciding the scope of damages. intiff, please submit evidence to support your im for damages.”


    “Yes, Your Honor. Exhibit A, the patent specification for Cas9,” Park Joo-Hyuk said. “As a product and use patent, this specification exins how to use Cas9. The im twenty-two discusses the gic modification of a living cell with Cas9.”


    Park Joo-Hyuk picked up the specification.


    “This means that gic modification of cells using Cas9 is the property of A-GenBio that is protected by registered patentws. But Atmox and He Jiankui have improperlymercialized it and profited from it, which constitutes an unjustified first-mover advantage to the market. This is an illegal act that has hindered the follow-up research that A-GenBio was preparing.”


    Park Joo-Hyuk submitted a second piece of evidence.


    “Furthermore, A-GenBio is discovering the entire SNPs of genes involved in embryogenesis from the genome project.”


    Lee Chun-Myung read the preparatory documents again. This was the second reason why the case was difficult: scientific jargon was being thrown around. As Lee Chun-Myung had already studied the preparation documents closely, he just had to read his notes that he wrote on the documents.


    <i>‘SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism): Variation of a single base position in the DNA.’</i>


    “These SNP data are strongly associated with disease development, and as the sample size grows, we can use statistical techniques like GWAS to demonstrate corrtion with diseases. Through this data, A-GenBio wanted to identify target disease locations in embryonic genes and eliminate them to stop gic diseases. There have already been significant preclinical results,” Park Joo-Hyuk said. “For example, Delta-32, a mutation in the CCR5 gene that is in question right now, is associated with a risk of reduced lifespan. If A-GenBio conducted gic modification on this gene at the embryonic stage, we could have eliminated Delta-32 and helped improve human health.”


    Lee Chun-Myung gulped as he saw Park Joo-Hyuk speak.


    <i>‘I just heard he was Ryu Young-Joon’s close friend who had worked with him when he was back at A-Bio... But he’s basically a biology expert.’</i>


    Park Joo-Hyuk’s exnation went on.


    “However, Atmox skipped all scientific approaches and performed gic modification to insert Delta-32 into the CCR5 gene of an embryo, causing severe adverse effects on future research. Please take a look at the documents submitted as Exhibit C. It contains the media’s reaction when Mimi, the gically modified baby, was presented at the GSC International Conference, and the change in funding for Cas9 research,” Park Joo-Hyun said. “Numerous international journals and media outlets condemned the research and expressed concern about the future of human gic modification. Religious organizations held rallies in several countries. In fifty-two countries, including the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Canada, funding for Cas9 research dropped by as much as seventy percent. The resulting loss of revenue from royalties on A-GenBio’s Cas9 patient is estimated at 1.3 billion dors annually.”


    Park Joo-Hyuk went on to exin the documents.


    “Moreover, Mr. Ryu Young-Joon, the CEO of A-GenBio, personally dered a moratorium on the academic research regarding Cas9 to take responsibility for the situation. This tense atmosphere will be difficult to ease for a while, and the embryonic gene modification that A-GenBio was nning will also be restricted. It is clear that this will inevitably hinder themercialization of treatments for inherited gic diseases.”


    * * *


    The hearing went on for three hours, and it was adjourned to resume the next morning.


    The first hearing was basically Park Joo-Hyuk’s one-man show. Working alongside Young-Joon, Park Joo-Hyuk had gained considerable knowledge about A-Gen’s research. He also knew thew from studying for the bar exam, and he also knew patentws well as he worked with Patent Attorney Lee Hae-Won on the patent for the flu treatment. He was nervous, but hepletely crushed his opponent.


    <i>‘Phew...’</i>


    Wang Wei, Atmox’s Ceo, sighed as he left the court. The trial went terribly. Hiswyers argued that the patentws did not grant the right to first-mover advantage and that although Atmox and He Jiankui’s creation of a gically modified baby was an infringement of patented property, their right to jump into the market was separate. However, this logic was quickly broken in the face of research ethics.


    “We call Ms. Zhi Xuan, the mother of the gically modified baby, as a witness,” said Park Joo-Hyuk.


    Atmox’swyers froze as soon as they saw her as she was a powerful witness.


    Zhi Xuan’s story, which was barely told through an interpreter, was so shocking that it left everyone in the courtroom, citizens and reporters alike, gasping in shock.


    “I didn’t know that the procedure was gic modification. None of the mothers there were given a detailed exnation.”


    “Objection! The witness signed the consent form herself,” shouted Atmox’s attorney.


    “We submitted that consent form as evidence,” Park Joo-Hyuk argued back. “Ms. Zhi Xuan didn’t even graduate from elementary school and doesn’t know how to read or write. The name she printed on the consent form isn’t even in Chinese. Under these circumstances, we cannot assume that the witness understood the situation and signed the consent form.”


    “Yes... Doctor He Jiankui said that I wouldn’t have a chanceter on, and he told me to write something. So, I scribbled anything with the pen,” said Zhi Xuan.


    Park Joo-Hyuk approached Zhi Xuan with a piece of paper.


    “This is a record of entrances from Atmox’sbs that we received from the Public Security Bureau. ording to this, the witness signed and left theb in just fifteen minutes. Is that correct?”


    “Yes... I waited for a while, and I left right after signing,” Zhi Xuan said in a scared voice.


    Then, Park Joo-Hyuk turned to the audience and asked, “Suppose she didn’t wait and had the experiment exined to her for the entire fifteen minutes. Would an illiterate, uneducated woman in her twenties have understood enough during that time to make a reasonable judgment about the logic behind the gic modification of embryos using Cas9, how it blocks the inheritance of HIV, and what the possible side effects might be? Has the witness received any additional graduate-level biology or medical training besides elementary education?”


    “No...”


    “This entire study is a vition of clinical trial regtions. Atmox did not legitimately take the first-mover advantage in the market of gically modified embryos as it was not a fairpetition.”


    Atmox was torn to shreds at the first hearing.


    * * *


    Wang Wei went on his phone in the car, trying to calm his mind.


    <i>‘It’s fine.’</i>


    A-GenBio was a hugepany with a very high revenue. Hiswyers expected that they would let Atmox go if they stalled for time, as it would be more profitable for them to focus on their main business.


    And He Jiankui had shown him how to stall them. He Jiankui had already informed the Korean media that China was building arge industrial zone on the eastern coast, which would blow micro-dust to Korea.


    <i>‘And he also exposed Doctor Ryu Young-Joon for not caring about the health of the Korean people.’</i>


    Wang Wei took a deep breath. If they could tarnish Young-Joon’s image, A-GenBio would care less about the trial, and if they stalled for time, it could all go up in smokes...


    “What is this?”


    Wang Wei froze while scrolling on his phone. A news article from China’s Beijing Daily popped up on his screen.


    [South Koreapany Cellijenner develops a running micro-dust reduction device based on joint research with A-GenBio.]