By the way, the U.S.P.O. jargon for this is "a force of nature." You cannot patent a force of nature, meaning a newly discovered law of physics or physical effect, such as the Seebeck effect, Peltier effect and Thomson effect. In other words, Seebeck, Peltier and Thomson would not be allowed to patent thermoelectric devices in general. They could have patented specific implementations.
Einstein could not patent relativity, but he could patent the Einstein-Szilard refrigerator. He knew a lot about patents. He did a superb job at the Swiss P.O. and was missed when he became full time prof. - Jed
