BioCentury
ARTICLE | Politics, Policy & Law

EPO limits oncomouse patent

November 12, 2001 8:00 AM UTC

The opposition division of the European Patent Office last week decided to maintain Harvard College's "oncomouse" patent (EP 0169672), but in an amended form. The division ruled that the patent has to be limited to transgenic rodents carrying an additional cancer gene.

The patent holders had applied for a patent covering all mammals containing such a gene in 1985, but in 1989 the application was rejected by the EPO, which argued that animals were not patentable under the European Patent Convention. Then the decision was reversed in 1990 after Harvard appealed. ...