Myriad Genetics Inc., the Utah maker of a widely used test for detecting inherited breast cancer, won an appeal at the European Patent Office, giving it back European patent protection on a genetic method to test for cancer.

The appeals board today decided to "set aside the first instance decision and maintained the patent, albeit in an amended form," the Munich-based patent office said in an e-mailed statement.

The European patent, which was granted to Myriad in 2001, is now owned jointly by the University of Utah Research Foundation and the United States, with Myriad the licensee. A lower board of the patent office canceled the protection in 2004 after agreeing with a number of scientific institutes, including the Institut Curie, that the patent wasn't novel.

The patent upheld Wednesday is smaller in scope, meaning that it only covers diagnostic testing methods "caused by a specific group of mutations of the gene," said Rainer Osterwalder, the office's spokesman. No further appeal is possible, he said after the hearing.

The decision may increase the cost of testing because laboratories will have to obtain licenses, said Penny Gilbert, a patent lawyer at Powell Gilbert in London, who wasn't involved in the case.

"Although the patent may not be challenged further in EPO proceedings, it still remains open to anyone concerned by the patent to challenge it in the national European courts," Gilbert said.

Officials at Institut Curie in Paris and at Salt Lake City- based Myriad couldn't immediately be reached to comment.