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General Science and Technology - What Cannot Be Patented?
What cannot be patented?
Many things do not qualify for patent protection:
- The laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas.
- A new mineral or a new plant found in the wild.
- Inventions intended solely for use in special nuclear material or atomic energy for weapons.
- A machine that does not serve a useful purpose.
- Methods of doing business.
- Printed matter.
- 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.
- Human beings.
- 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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