AR-News: (US-tx) Protests end beagle patent, leave open questions

[animalconcerns at fastmail.us]

Late last month, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center quietly canceled a patent
few people knew it possessed: the commercial right to make sick beagles.
Hoping to market a new drug for chemotherapy patients, the hospital had
patented a technique for pumping research beagles with lethal fungi. Its
decision to give the patent up is significant -- but for different
reasons than one might expect.

According to the patent application, beagles were chosen in part because
their docile nature makes them good research subjects. Unsettling as
this sounds, though, M.D. Anderson's decision to drop the patent had
little to do with whether winsome, friendly animals merit a different
fate than homely critters do. Neither did the decision reflect a
different attitude toward using animals for research -- something the
hospital defends. Instead, the episode showed something simpler. When
enough individuals complain, even giant institutions must react.

Two days before the cancellation, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
voiced its decision to re-examine the patent's validity. The decision
came after a challenge by the American Anti-Vivisection Society and
PatentWatch Project, a nonprofit group that monitors patent policy but
does not have a position on animal testing in general. The groups
questioned if it was truly "novel" to infect a beagle with a lethal
fungus, and if a sickened beagle really was "a machine, manufacture, or
inventor's composition of matter." Both designations are necessary to
earn a U.S. patent. 

full story:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/2650244

*** NEWS recently added on Animalconcerns -- added throughout the day
without posting to e-mail lists!  (Looking for something to post to your
e-mail lists?):

Pet insurance can lower vet bills - CBS.MarketWatch.com

Salem teens fight for change - Salem Statesman Journal

Atkins diet 'may ruin' chances of pregnancy - Glasgow Evening Times

Raucous Protesters Target Family - ktla 5

Abused horses are doing well - Poughkeepsie Journal

Teams vie to catch and bag rattlesnakes as part of annual snake hunt -
AP

Record number of pets enters Hawaii - AP

Dogs for rent brighten the lives of pet-deprived Japanese - AFP

Teacher takes seat as science student - Rocky Mount Telegram

SPCA class teaches kids about animals large and small, domestic and wild
- Santa Cruz Sentinel

Town trades circus parade for a Tour de Fourth this year - Boston Globe

Blunkett linked to animal charity - Financial Times

Animal- rights activists resume protests - Pasadena Star-News

Protests end beagle patent, leave open questions - Houston Chronicle

Zoos tackle debate over care - New York Newsday


----------
Your Portal to Animal Concerns Forum (discussion board), More News Headlines, AR-News on the Web, Events, E-Mail Lists, Jobs, and Organizations! Try searching for the news item on Animalconcerns! http://www.animalconcerns.org/