A patent is irrelevent in regards to rights to a piece of literature.
However, if you are concerned about an 'idea' that is contained in the novel, you need to know that patents are not issued for 'ideas'.
Patents are granted for a specific description/implementation of an idea, not the general concept.
For example. Arthur Clarke is generally credited with the idea that led to communications satellites. Many folks think the world would have been a different place if Mr. Clarke had patented that concept.
But its unlikely that he would have been able to do so by himself, especially considering that many of the technologies needed to create a comsat were not yet available when he came up with it.
"We could bounce radio signals off an object in geosynchronous orbit" is a great idea.
A patent for such would involve describing the transmission system, the tracking/aiming system, the method of reflecting the signal, or perhaps a method of receiving the signal, amplifying and then rebroadcasting it; switching systems for handling multiple signals simultaneously, etc., etc., with enough specificity that someone who is say, an electrical engineer, could use your description to build the device for themselves.
AND - its got to be new, novel, and previously unanticipated.
Patents are somewhat analagous to copyright, at least in this sense: when you write a story, you receive a copyright for the entire work, which is a particular assemblage of common words. You don't get copyright for the individual words, but for the unique presentation of them you've put together.
An idea is like an individual word, whereas the patent is like the completed work.
Hope that helps.
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