An invention is something new, useful and not obvious.
Patents protect the rights of inventors to their inventions.
Cade, Shires and their coworkers made an agreement with A. J. Stokely to commercialize Gatorade . The doctors and Stokely began to prepare US patents which, under rules in force at the time, would by law exclude others from making the beverage for seventeen years after the patent issued. As soon as the University and the government recognized Gatorade was becoming successful, they, too, made claims on Gatorade ownership. The University stated the doctors were employees of the University, thus, the benefits of work the doctors did as employees belonged to the University. After all, it was the practice in US industry that inventions made by employees belonged to the employer.