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MONTH: April 2008
U.S patent ruling just before Easter favors rabbits
JENKINTOWN, Pa.–– The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office just before Easter 2008 rejected a patent claim by a Japanese-owned company called Biochemical and Pharmacological Laboratories, Inc. which had attempted to patent rabbits whose eyes had been deliberately damaged.
The claim was challenged by the American Anti- Vivisection Society, the Alternatives Research & Development Foundation, and the PatentWatch project of the International Center for Technology Assessment.AAVS previously won a similar challege to a patent when the University of Texas tried to claim exclusive rights to produce beagles who had been severely infected with a particular strain of mold.
The U.S. Patent & Trademark office has issued more than 660 patents on animals since allowing Harvard University to patent a genetically modified mouse in 1987, but when patents have been challenged has tended to favor those in which the animal has been changed by manipulating genetic codes, rather than those in which the change was introduced by an external process.
Patent rulings are closely watched by advocates for amending the legal status of animals, since patents define the bounds of what may be considered “property.”
A setback in seeking to alter the property status of animals came in January 2008, when the Austrian Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the Vienna-based Association Against Animal Factories, seeking to have a chimpanzee named Matthew Hiasl Pan declared a legal person. The original petition, by British teacher and Austrian resident Paula Stibbe, was denied in April 2007.“The animal rights group said it would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights,” reported Associated Press.
“Matthew and another chimp named Rosi, were captured as babies in Sierra Leone in 1982 and smuggled to Austria for use in pharmaceutical experiments,” Associated Press explained. “Customs officers intercepted the shipment,” and turned the chimps over to a now bankrupt sanctuary.
Stibbe seeks to legally adopted Matthew to ensure that he will not be sold outside Austria. Using chimpanzees in experiments was banned in Austria in 200.