Diamond v. Chakrabarty

Chakrabarty's (plaintiff's) patent application for a genetically engineered, human-made microorganism was rejected by a patent examiner and the Patent Office Board of Appeals as outside patentable subject matter, but the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals reversed; the Commissioner of Patents (defendant) argued Congress's enactment of the Plant Variety Patent Act implicitly showed living things were understood to fall outside § 101's scope.