AR-News: PATENT ON BEAGLE DOGS CANCELLED

[AAVS]

For Immediate Release: May 27, 2004

CONTACTS:          
Crystal Miller-Spiegel, AAVS
(916)371-9872, (215)887-0816
cspiegel at aavs.org

Craig Culp, PatentWatch/Center for Technology Assessment
(202)547-9359, (301)509-0925 (cell)
cculp at icta.org

PATENT ON BEAGLE DOGS CANCELLED

University of Texas System "DisclaimsŠRemaining Term" of Patent on Sickened
Dogs

WASHINGTON ‹ In a major victory for patented beagle dogs, the Board of
Regents of the University of Texas System (UT) in Austin, Texas, disclaimed
"Šthe entire remaining term of all the claims" of patent #6,444,872, which
covers live beagle dogs intended for use in experiments. In February 2004,
the nonprofit organizations the American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS) and
the PatentWatch Project of the Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) filed
a legal challenge urging the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to
cancel the beagle patent. Last week, the Patent Office agreed to reexamine
the patent.

"This is a tremendous victory not just for the beagle dogs but for the 499
other animals who have been patented in the U.S.," said AAVS President Sue
Leary, "The University took the only morally defensible action it could in
the face of our challenge. It got the message that animals are not machines,
articles of manufacture, or inventors¹ compositions of matter."

The patent¹s claims covered, among other things, "a canine model [of fungal
lung infection]," and the various methods used to induce a fatal lung
infection in the beagle dogs. The patent also indicated applying the methods
to pigs, sheep, monkeys, or chimpanzees and, like many other patents on
animals, appeared to be exclusively licensed to a private company.

"This decision, hopefully, is a first step to rescinding all patents on
animals," says Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of CTA. "It is long past
time for our government to recognize that animals are not patentable
machines."  

The AAVS/PatentWatch challenge represented the first time public interest
organizations had requested the reexamination of a patent on an animal. New
rules under which this reexamination was granted will permit AAVS and
PatentWatch to appeal other similar cases all the way to the U.S. Supreme
Court if necessary. Since the Patent and Trademark Office first issued a
patent on an animal in 1987, it has issued nearly 500 patent applications on
animals. 

A nationwide poll of U.S. adults commissioned by AAVS earlier this year
found that two out of three people consider it unethical to issue patents on
animals as if they were human inventions. Eighty-five percent of those
surveyed were not even aware that governments and corporations are getting
patents on animals.
‹continued‹
 
Beagle Patent Victory, Page 2


"The swift decision of the University to drop all patent claims on sickened
beagles demonstrates the patent¹s weakness, both scientifically and
morally," said Tina Nelson, AAVS Executive Director. "This will be the first
of many patents on animals that will crumble under public scrutiny when the
truth is told."
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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 Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) 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.