(207)  Goodbye Dolly

Dolly the sheep, who became famous as the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, was put down on 14 February 2003 when she was found to be suffering from an incurable and progressive lung disease.  Dolly, who was created by the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh and spent her entire life there, had contributed to the development of intellectual property law in respect of both patents and trade marks (see Nos 14, 42).  Born on 5 July 1996, she was only 6 years old when she died, and having been cloned from the cell of a 6-year old sheep and having suffered arthritis from an early age, there was speculation about the link between her early demise and the age of the cloning source (sheep normally live for 11-12 years).  The body is to be stuffed and exhibited in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

On a fishier note, the Times for 10 January 2003 reported the demise of another, unrelated and uncloned Dolly, a 15-year old salmon who lived at the Fisheries Research Salmon Rearing Station at Almondbank, Perthshire.  The salmon was believed to be the oldest in the world, was nearly a metre long, and weighed 7 kg (15 lbs).  It had spawned every year for more than a decade and was therefore believed to have produced over 70,000 offspring.  Unfortunately this Dolly seems to be of no legal interest.