A researcher at the Upjohn Company receives what is often considered the first gene patent.
Date: 1981
The patent is for a naturally occurring plasmid found in Streptomyces espinosus.
"A plasmid is a small circular DNA molecule found in bacteria and some other microscopic organisms. Plasmids are physically separate from chromosomal DNA and replicate independently... Scientists use recombinant DNA methods to splice genes that they want to study into a plasmid. When the plasmid copies itself, it also makes copies of the inserted gene" (NIH, 2023).
Many other gene patents will soon follow.