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Even though it is not yet clear as a matter of law that isolated biological materials are indeed patentable subject matter, patents over such materials continue to be granted throughout the world. Recently, Craig Venter, the man who wanted to patent the human genome, made history again. This time he has built a synthetic bacterium from the ground up—in a laboratory. The bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium, is a naturally occurring thing. It is the smallest known bacterium consisting of 582,970 nucleotides. Venter's version of this bacterium is identical, except that he made it. Does this make it an invention? Indeed, Venter has in mind to use this synthetic bacterium, and other synthetic biological materials, as plasmids within which to insert genetic material that is foreign to that organism. The idea is to use these plasmids to manufacture other biological materials. It is a repeat of Cohen and Boyer's idea, which they also patented, but this time the plasmid itself will be a human construct. Is the patent system ready for Venter and his “invention”?
