On Mar. 17, 1980, Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty filed a patent application assigned to the General Electric Co. for a human-made genetically engineered bacterium capable of breaking down multiple components of crude oil. The application asserted 36 claims related to Chakrabarty’s invention of a bacterium from the genus Pseudomonas containing at least two stable energy-generating plasmids, each of said plasmids providing a separate hydrocarbon degradative pathway.

On Jun. 16, 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld five-to-four the patentability of genetically altered organisms, opening the door to greater patent protection for any modified life forms.