Patents for microbiology and biotechnology are generally for a process (for example DNA cloning; Cohen and Boyer 1980; and polymerase chain reaction, PCR; Mullis 1987) and not for the microbe itself. The patent for oil degrading bacteria (Chakrabarty 1981) was different in that it covered the modified microbial cell itself, a Pseudomonas strain with laboratory-assembled plasmids that encoded the bacterial degradation of multiple components of crude oil. It was first applied for in 1972, initially refused by the patent office on the basis that it was a living organism, and then 8 years later in June 1980 allowed by the US Supreme Court ruling that this did not matter and the only issue was whether it was a novel manufactured product.

中文翻译：

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为活的微生物细胞申请专利：美国最高法院判决戴蒙德（Diamond）与查克拉巴蒂（Chakrabarty）案40周年。

微生物学和生物技术的专利通常是针对某个过程的（例如，DNA克隆； Cohen and Boyer 1980；以及聚合酶链反应，PCR； Mullis 1987），而不是针对微生物本身。石油降解细菌的专利（Chakrabarty 1981）的不同之处在于它涵盖了修饰的微生物细胞本身，这是一种假单胞菌菌株，带有实验室组装的质粒，可编码多种成分的细菌降解。它于1972年首次提出申请，最初被专利局以其为活生物体为由予以拒绝，然后在8年后的1980年6月，美国最高法院裁定这无关紧要，唯一的问题是是否这是一种新颖的制成品。