What types of inventions cannot be patented?

Some types of inventions will not qualify for a patent, no matter how interesting or important they are. For example, mathematical formulas, laws of nature, newly discovered substances that occur naturally in the world, and purely theoretical phenomena-for instance, a scientific principle like superconductivity without regard to its use in the real world-have long been considered unpatentable. This means, for example, that you can't patent a general mathematical approach to problem solving or a newly discovered painkiller in its natural state.

In addition, the following categories of inventions don't qualify for patents:

processes done entirely by human motor coordination, such as choreographed dance routines or a method for meditation
most protocols and methods used to perform surgery on humans
printed matter that has no unique physical shape or structure associated with it
unsafe new drugs
inventions useful only for illegal purposes, and
non-operable inventions, including "perpetual motion" machines (which are presumed to be non-operable because to operate they would have to violate certain bedrock scientific principles).

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