The mouse that scored ... in the supreme court.

• Author: Mildon, Marsha
• Position: School's in

Section 1: The Harvard Mouse Case Study

Section 2: Your Intellectual Property Business Plan

Section 1: The Harvard Mouse Case Study

What is a patent?

How many times have you seen a cartoon character with a lightbulb appearing over its head to show that it has a new exciting idea? That picture of the lightbulb is an old cliche, but it shows something important. Using the complex chemicals and electrical impulses of their brains, human beings get bright new ideas and create new and useful things, that weren't obvious to others before.

In the real world of science, technology, and business, people who invent things that are new, useful, and non-obvious usually apply for patents for their inventions, so that they can sell them and make some money.

Definition: A patent is an absolute monopoly which prohibits anyone other than the patent owner from using the patented invention--unless the patent owner allows use of the invention, usually for a fee.

Who's the Harvard Mouse and why is it important?

(Most of the information below is taken and simplified from the Supreme Court of Canada case Harvard College v. Canada(Commissioner of Patents), 2002. Information from other sources is noted).

The Harvard Mouse, sometimes called the "oncomouse", is a very special mouse (onco is a Latin root word that refers to cancer). Scientists at Harvard University, who were testing materials to see if they caused cancer, and also looking for drugs to cure cancer--used mice as test subjects. Of course, to test the materials or drugs, they had to wait until their mice got cancer. Then someone got a bright idea. They invented a process in which they could inject a special cancer-promoting onco gene into fertilized mouse eggs. These eggs are then implanted into a female mouse, and soon a bunch of baby mice are born. The baby mice are tested and some have the onco gene. These are called the Founder mice. When the Founder mice mate with ordinary mice, it seems that about 50% of their baby mice will also have the onco gene in all of their cells.

Why is this important? The mice with the onco gene get cancer much more quickly when exposed to materials that cause cancer. In other words, the scientists can test their ideas much more quickly. This is obviously very important for human beings who want to avoid cancer-causing materials or who are hoping for drugs that will help cure cancer.

In the United States, the Harvard scientists got a patent on the process of injecting the onco gene into the fertilized eggs. They got a second patent on all the mice that were born with the onco gene in their cells. These patents applied to all animals, not just mice. The Harvard scientists also got patents on the process and on the mice in countries such as France and Britain in the European Union and also in Japan.

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