EUROPEAN UNION RESTRICTS ONCOGENE MOUSE PATENT

The European Patent Office
(EPO)
approved a restricted patent on the Harvard OncoMouse.
The EPO on July 6 limited
the patent to mice;
the original European patent, covered all mammalian species with a
transgenic oncogene. That patent had already been restricted in 2001
to only rodents. The EPO's decision is seen as a setback to activists
who have fought for 9 years to bar EU patents on living
organisms.