Moral exclusions on patents are very limited

Another requirement of patentability-patentable subject matter-also does little to reduce negative externalities. An invention must satisfy the threshold requirement of patentable subject matter in order to be eligible for patenting.141 On rare occasions, patent authorities have excluded certain classes of inventions from patentable subject matter, ostensibly on moral grounds. For instance, in the late 1990s, the PTO denied a patent application claiming human-animal chimeras.142 While it stated that this invention did not constitute patentable subject matter, lurking in the background were moral concerns over this technology. Unease about cloning technology and patenting humans led to a statutory carveout in the 2011 America Invents Act establishing that claims directed to or encompassing a human organism are not patentable subject matter. 143 While restrictions on patent eligibility could, in theory, deny patents on immoral inventions likely to generate high negative externalities, such exclusions are quite limited. Moral concerns play a very small role in narrowing patent eligibility in U.S. patent law, particularly compared to other jurisdictions.144