Nobody should be able to own life itself. Presently, however, corporations are able to own actual patents in genes--DNA and RNA sequences--and in effect have an ownership of a life form.
The draconian results speak for themselves: patented seeds from Monsanto that germinate once and then terminate, committing suicide; those same seeds proliferate, and if they're found in an independent farmer's field that person can and will be sued for stealing their patented crop seed, and that farmer can lose everything.
Clearly this gives way to a business that is getting way out of hand. Close Pandora's box--ban the copyrighting of genes!