1.   Patents are granted by the U.K. Patent Office, a government body.

2.   The United States patent and trademark office has granted three patents to RiceTec of Texas.

3.   Moreover, it was believed that the relationship was such that sales to Otis would probably have remained unaffected if the patent had not been granted.

4.   And since patent applications are secret in the United States until a patent is actually granted, no one knows that the patent application is pending.

5.   A recent patent was granted to Robert L. Forward, a California aerospace engineer, for a design for a geosynchronous satellite with solar sails, called a statite.

6.   But last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ruled that Ms. Cortright should be granted the patent.

7.   Four inventors have been granted a patent for a microwave oven that can detect how much food is inside and cook it appropriately.

8.   If the patents are granted, Abiomed will have to disclose the technical details of its device.

9.   If the patents are granted, this means they will also apply to crops from competitors such as St. Louis-based Monsanto.

10.   In many cases, patents have been granted even though the medical relevance of the gene is not yet known.