European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 6, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Building a better mouse a town a Tahiti by Keith Schneider new York times Hen Thomas Jefferson whole the Patent act in 1793. Had Ken Ullh mkt include animals among the items of Art. Machine manufacture or composition of matter Hal could to patented. Now. The United Stales Patent and Trade mail Olaco determined thai a mouse Tram formed through a Colic manipulation fit re Legal requirements Lor a now invention and it awarded the world s first a Nial Patent to Harvard University ii look the pal enl Ellice nearly four years to approve Patent no. 4,736,866. Or transgenic nonhuman  despite its intimate Contact with the most sophisticated technologies the Palcal Soltice s procedures differ Little from 1hoso employed by Jefferson when Tia granted the Vermont inventor Samuel Hopkins the nation s first Patent Lor a process to manufacture Potash. The average length of time needed to review and Issue a biotechnology Patent is 32 months a year longer than the time needed to consider applications in other Fields. We really have a Quill per system to Deal with 21st-Century  said rep Ron Wyden an Oregon Democrat who is chairman of a House Small business subcommittee Hal held hearings in april on delays in reviewing biotechnology Patent applications in other Fields. When h comes to cutting Edgo technology the Patent approval process can shape or Warp the future of a fledgling Industry Wyden said. The palent office s trouble with App  processing has clouded the future of this promising Domestic  learning to manipulate genes to make new forms of plants microbes  animals As Well As drugs and other biological substances can be extremely Dill cull. Gut once the alteration arc known the products Are often easy to duplicate. Without patents which Grant exclusive rights loan invention Lor 17 years biotechnology companies naturally Are reluctant to publicize their discoveries delaying the introduction of products. In instance where biotechnology companies have introduced unpatented inventions competitors have moved in with similar products resulting in a welter of infringement suits. The delays Are especially harmful to Small companies socking to Patent their products so that they can gel chemical and pharmaceutical corporations to Market them ii is Loo Early to know whether history will consider Harvard s mouse As important As Thomas Edison s incandescent lamp Patent no. 223.b9b or the Hying machine invented by Orville and Wilbur Wright Patent no. 821,393. Or. Philip Lyder. A geneticist at Harvard medical school and or. Timothy a. Stewart a former Harvard researcher inserted into the chromosomes of a mouse a Gene that in most mammals produces acc this provided scientists with a reliable biological system for testing new cancer therapies and for understanding More clearly How Gones contribute Lotfie development of malignancy. Harvard applied for the Patent in june 1964. Until april 1987, when the policy on patenting animals was changed the application languished one of thousands overwhelming the palent office s biotechnology examiners Bui Harvard was Lucky. When Patent office officials began last year to look Lor a Strong candidate to open a new Era in Patent history they seized upon the University s application. Twenty one patenting animals Are among the 14,000 biotechnology applications stil pending. The rate of increase in applications for pharmaceuticals altered microbes engineered animals and other new biological products was greater during the 19803 than for any other technology. Including computers and superconductors. Donah j. Quigg. Assistant Secretary of Commerce and commissioner of parents told the congressional panel that his Agency recognized the problem in 1985, but a solution has proved elusive. Attempts to hire More molecular biologists and train them As examiners Are hampered by the comparatively Low wages. We want to obtain special pay Rales for new examiners in this area Tuigg said. Congressional investigators say the Patent Ohio s problems Are More Basic. The world s largest depository of technical information still files its 28 million documents by hand filing boxes shelves and cabinets throughout a three building Complex in Arlington. A. When the subcommittee s investigators toured the Patent office they discovered that applications sent in months earlier were Slid in the Agency s mall room. In an office beyond the mail room the investigators found applications that had been sitting in wire carts since 1986. In 1984, the Patent office began to install a $500 million computer system to automate Many of its procedures. But it is not working properly. According to the general accounting office the investigative Arm of Congress the project is at least a year behind schedule and could incur Cost overruns of $159 million. Erma Bombeck it was t the most original thing i be Ever done but allowing world War b.1 gave birth to three yuppies. You probably did t hear much about it because 77 million other people did the same thing. Some compared this National birth explosion to a pig in the belly of a Snake because wherever this generation went they attracted attention and created problems just by their sheer size and numbers. Despite the fact we know they Are Here we Are always surprised when they show up Lor the next phase of their lives. For example we were totally unprepared when they went to Grade school. Forget that there weren t enough classrooms or teachers. The important thing is we did t even have a cute name for Allol them. Imagine a group that big and we did t know what to Call them. Luckily someone came up with baby  Pago 16 the stars and stripes Well you can imagine our Shock 12 years later when this army of kids decided to go to College. Surprise Surprise. Of sure we could Jam them onto campuses and arrange College Loans but what to Call them we settled on biddies Boomers in debt. Just when we though they were set for a while they graduated and entered the corporate world in search of housing automobiles and Vars. I cannot believe we got caught again without a name for them. Then someone came up with Yuppie Young Urban professional and from that came puppies poor Urban professional Dink double income no kids and a Host of other Cut esies. I think we re of now but it s not a Lime to Resl on our laurels. We must look ahead to the next phase and have a name in place when they gel there. In 25 or 30 years today s yuppies will roam the Earth monday june 6,1988 in search of Yuppie discounts at the movies and bathrobes with vests. They Wilt have names Tike Debbie Derek Rock and Fawn. They we constitute the largest elderly population this country has Ever seen at one time. Call it a Hunch but i Don t think they answer when you Call them senior  they be always had their own identity. Put aside the fact we won t have enough medical care or facilities for them. Let s get Busy with a name. What would you Call a group of 70 somethings who Are still making payments on a 30 year old Bow Are trying to get batteries Lor their biological Lime clocks so they can have children and who Are walking around with cellular phone implants so they won t miss a Call think about it. 1c Erma Boule cd