It goes further back then that. The 1980 Supreme Court patent case Chakrabarty v. Diamond was about oil eating bacteria that could be used to clean up oil spill

It goes further back then that. The 1980 Supreme Court patent case Chakrabarty v. Diamond was about oil eating bacteria that could be used to clean up oil spills. Not the same, but similar category. It was a very important case for patent law, but the technology was never commercially developed. For the patent law nerds out there, it's a pretty great case to get acquainted with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_v._Chakrabarty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_v._Chakrabarty