Sounds Like a Story from The Mind's I. The Washington Post reports that "U.S. Denies Patent for a Too-Human Hybrid." From the article: "Officials said it was not so difficult to make the call this time because Newman's technique could easily have created something that was much more person than not. But newer methods are allowing scientists to fine-tune those percentages, putting the patent office in an awkward position of being the federal arbiter of what is human."