"The focus of this case is a very small animal, namely a mouse - to use a poet's description, a 'Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie' (R Burns, "To a Mouse", 1785). In all other respects however, this case is not small." This is how the EPO's Technical Board of Appeal starts its reasons for the decision in the long-fought case on the validity of the European patent covering the Harvard oncomouse (T 315/03). The Board made the decision on July 6 2004, less than a year before the expiry of the patent in June 2005.