Both the Plant Breeder's Rights Act 1994 (Cth) and the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) establish schemes that grant exclusivity to some, but not other, biological organisms. The purpose of this article is to examine the interface between what ?plants', ?animals', ?algae' and ?fungi' are included and excluded from these schemes, addressing the epistemic rules of taxonomy (the classification of organisms) and the related nomenclature (the naming codes). The outcome of this analysis demonstrates that the existing conceptions of biological organisms in both statutory schemes are poorly articulated, but that a conception of suitably protectable biological organisms may be addressed through taxonomy and the naming codes. Significantly, however, taxonomy and the naming codes do not provide a definitive standard, though they may be a useful proxy for reducing organisms to the objects of law.
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