Listing patent applications on graduate/postbacc application CVs
If you include them, they should have their own section. Issued patents are more clearly reasonable to include than pending patents, though I don't think there's anything intrinsically wrong with listing pending patents.

Whether you should include them will depend in part on your field and how you want to position yourself in that field.  I would recommend consulting with professors you respect in your field.

In my field — computer science — many of us believe that the patent system is harmful to the profession.  I have an issued patent, but I do not advertise it. If I saw an applicant with many pending patents listed, I would ask about it in the interview, because depending on their motivations and reasons it may be sign that our approaches to research are not compatible and they would be better off with a different adviser. Occasionally I will include it on a version of my CV that I know will be reviewed by people who care about patents, but it is not on my primary CV.

I cannot speak to the particulars of your field, or how debates about patentability play out in it. But your decision of how to structure and what to include in your CV may stake out an initial position in that debate, and if so you should be aware of it and make sure that's what you want to do.