Can you patent a use for gorilla glass?

[acornell]

Can you patent a use for gorilla glass?

The gorilla glass itself seems to be patented:
https://www.corning.com/worldwide/en/patent-notices.html

Are these the only patents that can be had? Or could someone patent a *use* for their gorilla glass?

Although gorilla glass was developed for smart phones, it is now being adapted for use in automobiles as a lightweight, super-strong windshield:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UHzAb8ko24

There was about a year of research that went into creating that successful three-layer laminate.

Was their idea of using gorilla glass as a car windshield a *patentable* idea? Or does it fail the "non-obvious" requirement?

Their idea seems to check all of the other boxes: new and novel, original, useful... I imagine the use of gorilla glass will become standard in the automotive industry over time. But was it patentable?

(I have an analogous idea, using a totally different material, that could be also be widely beneficial.)

[Brad]

Unless you are using the glass for a completely unique and almost wacky application it would be near impossible to get a "new use" patent application approved.   I know there are websites and even some patent attorneys who still say you can get a patent on a "new use for known material" but in my experience they are very hard and expensive to get approved and anyone who tells you it is possible should be willing to show you some recent examples of patents they got approved for a new use of a known material (I would bet they cannot). 

For example, if your use of Gorilla glass was a new type of bone implant for humans that may have a chance but the use of a protective glass for phones being used as a protective glass for automobiles or other applications is a fairly easy obvious rejection for the patent examiner to make. 

[acornell]

My idea is a bit wacky: It takes a material currently used in armored vehicles for its strength, and repurposes it for its optical properties in an everyday household appliance. But once you read the specs on the material, it's obviously a good fit--like using gorilla glass in a windshield.

It sounds like it's not patentable!

Thank you very much for the feedback. It was incredibly helpful