Discovering Biology in a Digital World

"Let this sleepin' dog lie, son. Dog-gone it, I'm dog tired. I'm tired of leading the dog's life and fightin' likes cats and dogs against cats and dogs, a young pup's doggin' my trail tryin' to become top dog. I'm going to the dogs in a dog eat dog world, son. I... I'm so far over the hill... I'm on the bottom of the other side. "

I don't know why I find these stories about cloning puppies so interesting, but...

Someone sent me a press release on a dog fight between cloning companies.

It turns out that there's a third company, from South Korea, that's interesting in cloning puppies.

RNL Bio recently announced the cloning of dogs intended for detecting cancer, offering to sell them for USD 500,000 a piece, after previously announcing a plan to clone pet dogs.

Could RNL be barking up the wrong tree? BioArts (California) and Start Licensing (South Korea) are not amused and they are off on the hunt.

"RNL has no right to offer this service, and is practicing black market cloning," said Lou Hawthorne, CEO of BioArts. "Good international relations in the 21st Century depend on respect for intellectual property. By claiming the right to exploit technology that they did not invent and do not own, RNL demonstrates arrogance on an international scale. If RNL does not respect Western patents, does this mean that Western companies are free to disregard patents granted to Korean companies?"

Are those doggone illegal clones going to be let loose in South Korean litters? Will it be possible to teach illegal clones some new tricks?

It's not even clear to me if this technology has a market, much less something to bark about. Still, it looks like RNL may be in the dog house for this one.