yes, I also read that there is a controversy around it because someone else has claimed the patent just a few months after the original paper was being published ..
but anyway, whoever came first and whoever is in the right here, it's still a revolutionary technology and has the potential to transform the way we live!
We will see, I have some concerns with a few of the limitations of Cas9. However there are a number of other promising candidates with similar, but slightly different functions. Time will tell. We can, and likely will do a lot with Cas9.
As an aside, the technology revolves around CRISPR-Cas9 however the Clustered regularly interspaced short palendromic repeats part has absolutely nothing to do with the applications of the nuclease. Other than part of the sequence of the Guide RNA is derived from the repeating element of that locus. I personally wish the media would change discussions of this technology to read: Cas9 and The Gene Editing Method That Will (maybe) Change Our Lives Forever!