reproducible modified genes, and the cells that carry them. However, Harvard College v. Canada (Commissioner of Patents) has drawn a distinction between lower and higher life forms (see below). Where an invention is a combination of elements, the elements must produce something that is more than a mere sum of their individual effects. In other words, if each element functions independently and there is no common result, there is no inventive composition. Improvements Most inventions are not pioneering inventions in a new field or industry, but are rather improvements to existing arts, processes, machines, manufacturers and compositions of matter. It has been held that a newfound medical use for a known and patented pharmaceutical compound may qualify as an improvement in an art. The elimination of an element from a previously patented composition which results in a new and useful improvement may also be patentable. Excluded and contentious subject matter Scientific principles and abstract theorems Section 27(8) of the Patent Act provides: No patent shall be granted for any mere scientific principle or abstract theorem. This is the only section within the Patent Act that explicitly excludes certain subject matter from patents. Practical applications of scientific principles and abstract theorems, however, are not excluded from patentability. Therefore, while Newton's law of universal gravitation may not be patentable, a patent may be granted for the practical application of the theory, such as an improved gravity pump. Higher life forms: Harvard and Schmeiser In Harvard College v. Canada (Commissioner of Patents), Harvard researchers appealed the Commissioner of Patent's rejection of their patent application for genetically altered mice that possess an oncogene, termed oncomice, as well as the process by which the oncomice were created. The Supreme Court of Canada, by a narrow 5 to 4 majority, found that the Patent Act, specifically the categories of “manufacture” and “composition of matter” did not cover higher life forms: Owing to the fact that the patenting of higher life forms is a highly contentious and complex matter that raises serious practical, ethical and environmental concerns that the Act does not contemplate, I conclude that the Commissioner was correct to reject the patent application. This is a policy issue that raises questions of great significance and importance and that would appear to require a dramatic expansion of the traditional patent regime. Absent explicit legislative direction, the Court should not order the Commissioner to grant a patent