Were some dangerous diseases actually created artificially and immediately patented?
Once again we received inquiries about a picture that was shared on Facebook. Apparently patents on various diseases, such as AIDS or Ebola, are shown. The picture looks like this:

Screenshot by mimikama.org
The fact check
The Sharepic is not new. Colleague Wulf wrote in 2017:
US patent law has some strange and problematic content - such as the possibility of patenting ideas for which there is no solution for implementing them. But are patents granted on diseases in the United States? This has been claimed over and over again for years: AIDS, Ebola, BSA, Zika, SARS and swine flu - all of these diseases are said to be "owned" by the US government, companies and organizations.
The corresponding patent numbers are included - with the invitation to google them yourself. That would actually help – to refute most of the claims.
1 refers to an alleged cure for immune deficiency. The owner Marvin S. Antelman states that the drug Tetrasil, a silver oxide, could cure the disease - a claim that he later expanded to include other diseases. However, Antelman has yet to provide any proof of this.
The “H1N1 patent” US 8835624 ( 2 ) was not for the swine flu pathogen, but for a substance (aptamer) that can be used to identify the viruses.
With the alleged “Ebola patent” CA2741523 A ( 3 ) it is a little more difficult. At first glance, this actually concerns the registration of a specific type of Ebola pathogen in Canada. However, the letter A at the end is crucial: it indicates that this is an application that has not been approved since it was submitted in 2009.
In “Zeit” ( 4 ), the patent attorney Jan Krauß explained why this is so: According to a court decision from 2013, natural genetic material can no longer be patented in the USA ( 5 ).
ATCC VR-84 – and not, as incorrectly stated, ATTC VR-84 – is not even a patent, but rather a trademark in the American Type Culture Collection ( 6 ). This is a non-commercial company that provides microorganisms and cells for research purposes to qualified institutions provided they demonstrate the need and can provide the appropriate safety qualifications.
But!
And the SARS patents? They really exist. One was actually issued to the genome of the virus that causes the dangerous lung disease ( 7 ). The other relates to a vaccine against the plague ( 8 ). Both are owned by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The patent application triggered a fundamental debate at the beginning of the millennium: The CDC declared that by patenting it wanted to secure free access to the virus for science and industry in the long term ( 9 ). The World Health Organization, on the other hand, feared a precedent that could hinder research and development ( 10 ). Greenpeace also sees such patents as problematic ( 11 ).
One more to go...
That leaves the alleged BSE patent 0070031450 A. This doesn't exist at all: US patent numbers have a maximum of eight digits ( 12 ), so the format alone is not correct. All patents found in databases relating to bovine spongiform encephalopathy were granted for diagnostic methods.
In fact, there's only one piece of information that's actually of any value in the post: the call to educate yourself rather than believing such claims unchecked.
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

