The claim appears in a Facebook post featuring a list of viruses and diseases alongside corresponding patent numbers.

“You cannot patent anything that occurs naturally - so it has to be ‘altered’ if you get the drift…” the caption reads. 

Another Facebook post includes a similar list, with text reading: “Hint: Natural products cannot be patented: only man-made products. They are developed in a lab.”

Patents are a type of intellectual property designed to protect new inventions including devices, substances, methods or processes. 

Biological material in its natural state, i.e. that hasn’t been isolated, modified or recombined, is not eligible for patent protection, but a patent can be granted if this has occurred, which is typical for research and vaccine development.

The first patent number in the social media posts is 5676977, listed next to AIDS – the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

This application is not a patent for either AIDS or HIV, but for “tetrasilver tetroxide molecular crystal devices”, which the inventors hoped could offer a treatment for the disease.

The application was filed in 1996 but has since expired. 

Patent number 8835624 corresponds to the H1N1 virus, which causes swine flu. This application is not for the virus itself but for an aptamer – a strand of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA) that can bind to certain molecules on the surface of a pathogen.

The inventors hoped it would be effective in the detection of H1N1. 

Patent 20120251502 is a patent filed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2009 that covers the composition of EboBun, a strain of the Ebola virus.

It is not the original virus, but a strain that was identified and isolated from a patient in Uganda and protected to ensure further research, vaccine development and testing could occur. 

The patent has since been abandoned.  

Patent CA2741523A1 also relates to EboBun, not swine flu as described in the post.

It was filed by the CDC to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and covers an isolated version of the virus.  

The post claims patent number 0070031450A1 is for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which is a neurodegenerative condition in cows commonly known as mad cow disease. 

There is no patent matching this number, but there is an abandoned application for an animal vaccine formulation under a number with one digit difference – 20070031450A1.

Similarly, ATTC VR-84 in the post, listed to correspond with Zika virus, is not a patent number. 

ATTC may be a misspelling of the ATCC – the American Type Culture Collection – which collects and stores microbiological specimens.

VR-84 is the name of a Zika virus strain listed on the ATCC’s website.

The post lists two patent numbers for SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). 

Patent application 7897744 was filed by the Public Health Agency of Canada in 2004 and covers the genomic sequences of SARS for the purpose of diagnosis and treatment.

Number 8506968 is an expired patent for a vaccine composition and included modified viral particles.

The final patent listed is 10130701, which relates to a weakened version of a coronavirus that could be used for the development of an animal vaccine.

Coronavirus is an umbrella term for a large number of viruses that cause illness in humans and animals.

Reuters reported that the patent, filed by the Pirbright Institute in 2015 – a British research institute dedicated to the study of infectious diseases of farm animals – is for a bronchitis virus affecting birds and is not related to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Reuters and Full Fact have also debunked the claim.