ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the objective-ness of biological artifacts through patent law and plant variety protection certificates. In doing so it gives empirical flesh to Pierre Bourdieu's point that law possesses the power to name and through this make these named things real. First employed by early naturalists, inscription has lent itself well to patent law and the global assemblages of today's biotechnology regime. The Patent Act of 1793 represents an extension of the author's and inventor's rights that were initially enshrined in the US Constitution and the earlier 1790 act. The chapter offers an ANT-Marxian hybrid analysis; though not for purposes of a synthesis but rather to bring together the two approaches into a conversation the product of nature doctrine was as much an artifact of the techno-scientific knowledge as it was a product of legal reasoning. The American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) continued to lobby the government for plant patent rights.
