Intellectual Property Stories

J.J. Thomson found the charge to mass ratio of an electron. Today, this experiment can be duplicated in a lab as an educational experience. This experiment involves a magnetic field acting on an electron beam.  It tells us a lot about the laws of physics. For example, from this experiment students learn that the charge to mass ratio is proportional to the accelerating voltage and inversely proportional to the square of the magnetic field. I've decided to use it to illustrate patents in the United States.

First, imaging that you're a physicist and you've just made this amazing discovery. You contact the USPTO and ask for a patent. Sadly, they tell you that you can't patent your discovery. This is referred to as a law of nature, and one of the major concepts in patent law is that you cannot get a patent for a natural law. This rule is justified by the policy that you should not be allowed to exclude others from using a law of nature. Imagine telling people that the can't use gravity without paying you a royalty. Another caveat to take from this is that patents don't give you the right to use something. Patents give you the right to exclude others from using something. 

Next, I'd like you to imagine that you thought up and built the device you see in the picture below. The device can be used to illustrate the principal we discussed above. This device could be sold to schools where students can use it to discover the laws of physics. Now we can discuss patenting this as an invention. In order to patent something there are several statutory requirements like 35 U.S.C. 101.  In this case, such an invention may be patentable, subject to the other requirements to receive a patent.