So, for a patent to be issued, your invention must meet four conditions: Able to be used (the invention must work and cannot just be a theory) A clear description of how to make and use the invention. New, or “novel” (something not done before) “Not obvious,” as related to a change to something already invented.
In conclusion, patent protection is possible for previously known drugs being repurposed for new indications. The best chances for patenting repurposed drugs occur when care is given to initial experimentation to establish the usefulness of the drugs and for identifying any unexpected properties of the drugs.
Are natural products patentable? An invention must be new and useful to be patentable in the United States 5. Notably, laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas are excluded from patent-eligible protection 6, because these naturally-occurring matters are discovered rather than invented.
While it is impossible to patent an existing product, it certainly is feasible to patent an improvement over an existing product. Below we discuss how non-obvious improvements to an existing product can be patented.
In the United States, there are three types of patents, all governed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO): utility, design, and plant. Chemical patents can protect chemical compounds, compositions of matter, methods of making the chemical compound or composition, and methods of use.
In other words, biological material, even if it is identical to that found in nature, may be patented in those territories that allow it, provided that a specific application or use associated with it has been identified. The use can be therapeutic, food, as a catalyst for an industrial reaction, etc.
A product of nature, as well as a new plant variety recently discovered in the wild, is not patentable, whereas extracts of such are patentable.
List of Elon Musk Patents Elon Musk PatentsTitle US20020018236A1 Bi-Directional Facsimile Mechanism Using The Internet EP1105695A1 Method And Apparatus For An Accelerated Radius Search WO2020167613A1 Autonomous And User Controlled Vehicle Summon To A Target WO2000011435A1 Method And Apparatus For An Accelerated Radius Search21 more rows
Examples of Patents Some famous examples of products that have been patented include: The Telephone: Patented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. The Lightbulb: Patented in 1878 by Thomas Edison. Global Positioning System (GPS): The patent was awarded to Roger Easton in 1974.
New Uses for Existing Inventions For example, in 2000, the Federal Circuit allowed a patent for the idea of using Bag Balm -- an ointment normally used to soothe irritated cow udders -- to treat human baldness. The court found it patentable, because it's a new use of a known composition.