TOKYO -- A Japanese court ruled Tuesday in favor of a patent application by a U.S. institute on the breakthrough CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique, in a win for a technology embroiled in intellectual property disputes worldwide. If the ruling is upheld, drugmakers and other companies would be required to pay license fees to use the technique for commercial purposes. Makiko Takabe, chief judge of the Intellectual Property High Court, rejected the Japan Patent Office's decision on one of two applications made by the Broad Institute, part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.