According to the patent law, the rules and methods of intellectual activity cannot be patented, and intellectual activity is a spiritual thinking movement. It directly acts on people's thinking, which can only produce results through people's thinking activities, or indirectly acts on nature through people's thinking as a medium, producing effects without the help of natural forces. Therefore, this kind of activity does not have technical characteristics and does not belong to the invention-creation mentioned in the patent law, so it cannot be granted a patent right.
The characteristics of such rules and methods guiding human thinking activities are: they must be thought and judged by the human brain when used. It usually includes: instructions for the use of various equipment and musical instruments, teaching methods, music scores, speed algorithms, formulas, grammar, computer language and calculation rules, dictionary arrangement methods, book classification rules, calendar arrangement rules and methods, psychological test algorithms, cutting methods, accounting methods, statistical methods, game rules and various tables.