Presentation given to chemistry students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on April 18, 2022. The presentation covers patent basics, the statutory criteria for patenting, and case studies showing the type of patent claims that are available for chemistry-related inventions. The presentation touches on notable chemical and pharmaceutical inventions. The works of William Kroll (the Kroll process), Robert Burns Woodward (Nobel laureate for works in organic chemistry), Glenn Seaborg (a giant in nuclear chemistry), and Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb and GE’s rivalry with Westinghouse. The match patent that was “ended for humanity’s sake” and an overview of patented inventions in the pharmaceutical industry, including examples of genus-species, enantiomer, and polymorph claims frequently used to protect pharmaceutical inventions.
