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What cannot be patented?

Many things do not qualify for patent protection:

1. The laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas.
2. A new mineral or a new plant found in the wild.
3. Inventions intended solely for use in special nuclear material or atomic energy for weapons.
4. A machine that does not serve a useful purpose.
5. Methods of doing business.
6. Printed matter.
7. In the case of mixtures of ingredients, such as medicines, a patent cannot be granted unless the effect of the mixture is greater than the effect of its components.
8. Human beings.
9. Mere substitution of one material for another or changes in size to a previously known useful invention without "novelty," or newness.

Source: Levy, Richard C. The Inventor's Desktop Companion, p. 10.

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