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Patents are a form of right that is granted to you by the government, it gives the owner the right to exclude other parties from making, using, selling, offering to sell, and importing their invention for a limited period of time.
The ancient Greeks in 500 B.C. granted protection to inventors, while the first patent law was enacted by the Venetian Republic in 1474. Massachusetts gave Joseph Winslow a patent to make salt in 1633, the first in North America.
History has also been filled with silly patents, (apparently not a disqualification): a method for swinging on a swing (duh!), a face-mask to prevent eating, an anti-thumb-sucking device, a gerbil shirt (don't ask), a banana case, animal ear protectors for doggies, a bike with a sail and, of course, an interactive life-size bowl of soup.
The United States is in the middle of patent boom right now, but the real golden age was the industrial revolution of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1916 and 1915, the U.S. Patent Office granted more than 400 patents per person in the United States -- while 2010 and 2011 topped 120,000 grants each year.
An Australian gym owner lost a bid to trademark his "Superman workout," despite claiming the origin of his phrase was Nietzsche instead of DC Comics. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled against a Vermont farmer who said he trademarked the phrase "Eat More Kale," because it is too similar to the phrase "Eat More Chickin'" which is already owned by fast-food chicken chain Chick-Fil-A.
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