19.4 PATENTABLE VERSUS NONPATENTABLE SUBJECTS
The patent statue declares that a process is patentable; meaning process, art, or methods, including the new use of a known process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter or material. Naked ideas, independent of the means to carry them out, are not patentable. A valid patent may not be obtained for an abstract principle, idea, law of nature, or scientific truth. You cannot patent gravity, but you could patent a process that uses gravity in a novel way. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently examining a patent case related to this issue, diagnosing B vitamin deficiencies by measuring something in the patient's blood.
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