The university's Schaap laboratory studied a simple multicellular organism, Dictyostelium, in which motile cells (those which can move spontaneously) differentiate into two immobile cell types: stalk cells and spores.
Maybe it should be a requirement that to patent a gene that the patented gene be attached to chromosomes or organelles that are only found in the non-motile gamete (e.g. if it exists, something like the Y-chromosome, but only existing in eggs ).