Re: Has anyone ever sought to patent a chemical element (e.g. heavy element)

Hard to know how to answer this one.  I have a patent on Boron clusters,
similar to Carbon "Buckyballs".  Elemental Boron is very light, (ave. AMU
10.8), but the mass of boron clusters can have AMU's in the hundreds.  The
only trick is convincing the PTO to grant you a patent.  Can't tell you
offhand what anyone else has done.

b.

Dan Berger adds:
So far as I know, you can patent a process or a new product but not a fact of
nature. An element per se would qualify as a fact of nature. So far as I can
see Dr. Becker patented a process to make a particular form of boron, but not
the element itself.