AR-News: FIRST EVER LEGAL CHALLENGE FILED AGAINST THE PATENTING OF AN ANIMAL

[AAVS]

For Immediate Release: February 25, 2004

CONTACTS:          
Crystal Miller-Spiegel, AAVS
(215) 887-0816, (215) 370-5585 (mobile)
cspiegel at aavs.org

Craig Culp, PWP/ICTA
(202) 547-9359, (301) 509-0925 (mobile)
cculp at icta.org
 
FIRST EVER LEGAL CHALLENGE FILED AGAINST
THE PATENTING OF AN ANIMAL

Groups Seek to Rescind Controversial Patent on Beagle Dogs

Poll Shows Majority of Americans Oppose Patenting Animals as Inventions

WASHINGTON ‹ A patent on live beagle dogs was challenged in a legal action
filed today by two non-profit organizations seeking to rescind the patent.
The American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS) and the PatentWatch Project
filed the legal challenge with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In the
challenge, the groups urged the Patent Office to cancel Patent # 6,444,872,
which covers live beagle dogs and the several methods used to induce a fatal
lung infection in them.

"The granting of this patent on dogs, and of hundreds of other patents on
animals, shows that the Patent Office is in legal and ethical freefall,"
says Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the International Center for
Technology Assessment (ICTA) which oversees the PatentWatch Project.
"Animals like these beagles are sentient, living beings not patentable
machines or products of some institution or corporation. This legal
challenge, and the poll numbers showing widespread public opposition to
animal patenting, should send a strong message to the Administration and the
Patent Office that this patent is neither legally valid nor morally
acceptable."

The dogs claimed in the patent are intended for use in experiments. The
patent being challenged was issued to the Board of Regents of the University
of Texas System in Austin, Texas, and, like many other patents on animals,
now appears to be exclusively licensed to a private company.

"We have requested that the Patent and Trademark Office cancel the claims of
this beagle patent because neither beagles nor other higher animals fit into
any of the statutory categories of patentable subject matter," said
PatentWatch Director Peter DiMauro.

Recent changes in U.S. patent law now allow any person to request a
reexamination of certain issued patents and participate in the proceedings
as they progress through the patent system. Since the Patent and Trademark
Office first issued a patent on an animal in 1987, it has accepted nearly
500 patent applications on animals.

However, results from a February Opinion Research Corp. survey of 1,008 U.S.
adults commissioned by AAVS found that two out of three people consider it
unethical to issue patents on animals as if they were human inventions.
Further, 85% of those surveyed were not even aware that governments and
corporations are getting patents on animals.
 
"We don't treat our companion animals like we treat our toasters or
computers for the obvious reason that they are not inanimate objects,"
stated Sue Leary, AAVS President. "They are not articles of manufacture,
they are not human inventions. Animal patents have no place in our society
and are an inappropriate application of U.S. patent law."

In addition, AAVS and PatentWatch are concerned about the incentive that
animal patents provide to increase animal suffering.  Most animal patents
directly include harming, mutilating, killing, and/or  genetically altering
animals for experimentation, testing, and research. "The patent that AAVS
and PatentWatch are challenging involves subjecting beagles to radiation,
drugs, and forced infection, resulting in a fatal illness," added Leary.

The American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS) is a non-profit animal advocacy
and educational organization dedicated to ending experiments on animals in
research, testing, and education.  Founded in Philadelphia in 1883, AAVS is
the oldest organization in the United States dedicated to eliminating
experiments on animals.   AAVS pursues its objectives through legal and
effective advocacy, education, and support of the development of non-animal
alternative methods.

The International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA) is a public
interest and advocacy organization that works to address the impacts of
technology on human health, animal welfare, and the environment.
The PatentWatch Project of the International Center for Technology
Assessment works to expose and challenge the inappropriate use of the U.S.
patent system.

For more information, including document downloads, visit:
www.stopanimalpatents.org.