My family has an ancestral Chinese medicine bone-setting ointment. What is the procedure for applying for a patent? I am the seventh generation.

General drugs can apply for invention patents. You can consult the local patent agency and apply for a patent. If it is an ancestral secret recipe, it is not easy to see the ingredients from the finished medicine. It is recommended not to blindly apply for a patent. Patent applications are generally open, and the term of patent protection (generally 20 years, the term of patent protection for pharmaceutical inventions can be appropriately extended, but not very long) is limited. Patent protection is regional and people all over the world will know it, but you can use it free of charge in countries where you have not applied. In addition, even if you apply for a patent, it will be very difficult for you to defend your rights if others do it. Of course, if your medicine is sold publicly, it is easy for others to apply for a patent when they see the ingredients, which becomes the right of others, so you should judge for yourself whether to apply for a patent.