History
The 1970s marked the first time when scientists patented methods on their biotechnological inventions with recombinant DNA. It wasn’t until 1980 that patents for whole-scale living organisms were permitted. In Diamond v. Chakrabarty, the U.S. Supreme Court established the patentability of living matter, provided it was truly "man-made." The subject for this particular case was a genetically engineered bacterium that was specifically modified to help clean up and degrade oil spills.
Since that 1980 court case, there has been much patenting of genetically modified organisms. This includes bacteria (as just mentioned), viruses, seeds, plants, and even non-human animals. For example, a genetically modified mouse, dubbed the Oncomouse, that is useful for studying cancer, was patented by Harvard University.
Isolated and manipulated cells - even human cells - can also be patented. In 1998, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) issued a broad patent claiming primate (including human) embryonic stem cells, entitled "Primate Embryonic Stem Cells" (Patent 5,843,780). On 13 March 2001, a second patent (6,200,806) was issued with the same title but focused on human embryonic stem cells.
New plants and seeds are also patentable. There are two ways that new plants can be protected. One is a "plant patent" that protects Plant breeders' rights when new plants are bred as opposed to be genetically created. These rights are different from those provided by the more commonly considered patent rights under the utility model. In one example of a utility patent on a genetically modified seed and the plants that come from it, the biotechnology company Monsanto developed and patented a glyphosate-resistant gene for the canola plant which has the effect of producing canola that is resistant to their Roundup brand of herbicide. Monsanto has enforced this patent against farmers who used the seed without paying Monsanto -- see Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser.
Companies and organizations, like the University of California, have patented entire genomes.
Read more about this topic: Biological Patent
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“What is most interesting and valuable in it, however, is not the materials for the history of Pontiac, or Braddock, or the Northwest, which it furnishes; not the annals of the country, but the natural facts, or perennials, which are ever without date. When out of history the truth shall be extracted, it will have shed its dates like withered leaves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)