Harvard "oncomouse" not patentable under Canadian law.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled on December 5, 2002, that a genetically altered cancer-prone mouse developed by Harvard University researchers, the so-called oncomouse, is not patentable under Canadian law. In a 5-4 decision, the court held that the process by which the mouse was created is patentable but that the resulting mouse is not, on the basis that the oncomouse is a "higher life form" that does not fit into the Canadian Patent Act's current definition of an invention.

The creation of an oncomouse involved injecting a mouse egg with a myc gene that predisposes the mouse to developing cancer, aiding researchers in the study of the disease. The US and European …