By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
A high-stakes court battle is set to pit some of the world's most famous gene scientists, or infamous in the case of Hwang Woo-suk, against each other in an international dispute over the commercial rights for animal cloning.
The patent battle between the world's two companies involved in the business of dog cloning is about to get under way in a Korean court.
Start Licensing, a Texas-based company that holds licenses for the technology developed for the cloning of Dolly the sheep, owned by the Roslin Institute, is preparing to sue Seoul-based RNL Bio for a violation of patents on animal cloning technology.
According to officials close to the development, Start Licensing, which has since hired a Korean law firm, is ``very near'' to filing the papers.
``Things are going to heat up in the next month or two,'' said a source.
The company can also bring an all-star lineup of international scientists here to testify in court. This means that Hwang could be making his first public appearance since being dismissed from Seoul National University (SNU) in 2006 for his fraudulent studies on cloned human stem cells.
``Although the lawyers may try to spare Ian Wilmut and other high-profile scientists from the witness stand and have them present written statements instead, it is hard to tell how this saga will wind up,'' said a Seoul-based patent lawyer.