In a landmark decision that opens the door for genetically engineered organisms to be patented in Canada, an Ottawa court ruled last week that Harvard is eligible for a patent on a trailblazing class of genetically altered mice.

"Oncomice," which have genes that make them prone to cancer, won the first ever American patent for an animal in 1988, but the University has been fighting for fifteen years to gain similar protection in Canada.

Genetically engineered single-celled organisms and processes used to create modified higher life forms were previously eligible for patents in Canada, but transgenic plants and animals themselves were not.

The 2-1 ruling by the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal reversed the decisions of Canada's patent commissioner and a lower court, requiring the commissioner to apply the same criteria to living and inanimate inventions. The decision was confined to interpretation of the patent code and did not address broader ethical objections some raised to the patenting of life forms.

The ruling will allow for renewal of patent review for more than 250 biotechnology applications that have been on hold awaiting the decision.

But the government may still appeal the case to the Canadian Supreme Court, a possibility that Justice Department lawyer Rick Woyiwada said this week is under consideration.

A. David Morrow, the Ottawa attorney who argued the case for Harvard, predicts that the case will be heard in the Court's 2001 session if the government goes forward with an appeal.

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