This Supreme Court decision allows for the patenting of living organisms, which had been forbidden prior to this decision.
From the filing:
In 1972, respondent [Ananda M.] Chakrabarty, a microbiologist, filed a patent application, assigned to the General Electric Co. The application asserted 36 claims related to Chakrabarty’s invention of “a bacterium from the genus Pseudomonas containing therein at least two stable energy-generating plasmids, each of said plasmids providing a separate hydrocarbon degradative pathway.” This human-made, genetically engineered bacterium is capable of breaking down multiple components of crude oil. Because of this property, which is possessed by no naturally occurring bacteria, Chakrabarty’s invention is believed to have significant value for the treatment of oil spills.
Source:
- June 16, 1980. US Supreme Court. Sidney A. DIAMOND, Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, Petitioner, v. Ananda M. CHAKRABARTY et al. Cornell Law School: Legal Information Institute.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/447/303.
University, Judgment.