Inventing animals

Patent law might seem an unlikely area to inquire into questions, especially critical questions, about human and non-human relations. Patent law seems to reinforce the old distinctions between persons and things, humans and non-humans, in strictly instrumental terms. Non-human animals are simply means to our ends. Although this may be an accurate representation, in this chapter I want to challenge this way of thinking about non-humans as objects of intellectual property rights. I want to draw attention to how the limits of patentability and the patentability of animals are co-constitutive. In other words, the concept of invention needs to be reconsidered in light of the invention of animals.