The idea is that its removal from the body and purification makes it into something different that can be patented.

VOA: special.2010.04.09

An estimated twenty percent of human genes have been patented in the United States.

VOA: special.2010.04.09

But Woods notes that algae, using Algenol's patented process, produces eight times more energy than the energy used to make it.

VOA: standard.2009.09.02