[2] Dolly was cloned in 1996 by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues at the Roslin Institute, part of the University of Edinburgh Scotland.

The resulting cloned animal is an exact genetic replica of the adult mammal from which the somatic cell nucleus was taken.

"[5] The patent in Chakrabarty claimed a genetically engineered bacterium that was capable of breaking down various components of crude oil.

The patent applicant created this non-naturally occurring bacterium by adding four plasmids to a specific strain of bacteria.

The Court held that the modified bacterium was patentable because it was "new" with "markedly different characteristics from any found in nature and one having the potential for significant utility."

Similarly in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc.,[6] the Court held that claims on two naturally occurring, isolated genes (BRCA1 and BRCA2), which can be examined to determine whether a person is likely to develop breast cancer, were patent ineligible invalid under § 101, because the BRCA genes themselves were unpatentable products of nature.

[9]Roslin argued that "environmental factors" lead to differences in shape, size, color, and behavior, that result from aging and the interaction of the animal with its environment.

[10] ● Professor Dan Burk finds that "the Roslin opinion is hardly a model of coherent judicial reasoning, either on its own terms or with regard to the Supreme Court's subject matter jurisprudence to that point."

He insists that Dolly the cloned sheep was not something found in nature, because "genetically identical mammals are not what one finds in the wild."

Thus, Dolly was in a genetic sense 'born old' and lived a shortened life as a result.Burk argues that the proper test of patent eligibility for such a product as Dolly the sheep is whether the claim preempts field of the described subject matter, so that "fundamental concepts and materials, on which all inventors must draw, [are] caught up in patent claims."