I don't know about patents, but unique words are absolutely copyrightable. Tolkien's son still holds the copyright on "Hobbit", for example, which is why everyb

I don't know about patents, but unique words are absolutely copyrightable. Tolkien's son still holds the copyright on "Hobbit", for example, which is why everybody who copied from The Lord of the Rings, in particular D&D, used "halfling".