History of patent law
Encyclopedia
The history of patent
s and patent law
s is generally considered to have started in Italy
with a Venetian Statute of 1474 which was issued by the Republic of Venice
. They issued a decree by which new and inventive devices, once they had been put into practice, had to be communicated to the Republic in order to obtain legal protection against potential infringers. The period of protection was 10 years.
Patents, however, existed before the Statute of 1474. In England grants in the form of “letters patent
” were issued by the sovereign to inventors who petitioned and were approved: a grant of 1331 to John Kempe and his Company is the earliest authenticated instance of a royal grant made with the avowed purpose of instructing the English in a new industry. The first Italian patent was actually awarded by the Republic of Florence
in 1421, and there is evidence suggesting that something like patents was used among some ancient Greek
cities. In 500 BC, in the Greek city of Sybaris
(located in what is now southern Italy), "encouragement was held out to all who should discover any new refinement in luxury, the profits arising from which were secured to the inventor by patent for the space of a year."
, writing in the third century CE, mentions that in 500 BC, in the Greek city of Sybaris
(located in what is now southern Italy), there were annual culinary competitions. The victor was given the exclusive right to prepare his dish for one year. Charles Anthon
expanded on this, saying that in Sybaris, "encouragement was held out to all who should discover any new refinement in luxury, the profits arising from which were secured to the inventor by patent for the space of a year."
When legislatures were established in the Australian Colonies, people could apply (petition the parliament) for a patent to be granted by the Governor of the colony, by way of a Private Bill. The first of these was South Australian Private Act No.1 of 1848, granted to Andrew John Murray of Adelaide, S.A. for "An improved windlass", on the 20th June 1848, for a period of 10 years. A further three Private Acts were granted in South Australia; and several were granted in Western Australia.
The first patent act in Australia, other than private acts, was introduced into New South Wales in 1852 (coming into force on 10 January 1854.) Victoria proclaimed its first Patent Act in 1854, with the length of the grant being for 14 years.
The administration of the States Patents Acts (NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA and Tasmania) was transferred to the Commonwealth of Australia from 1 June 1904. IP Australia is the Australian Government agency responsible for administering patents, as well as trade marks, designs and plant breeder’s rights in Australia.
received a three year patent for a barge with hoisting
gear, that carried marble along the Arno River in 1421.
Patents were systematically granted in Venice
as of 1450. These were mostly in the field of glass making. As Venitians emigrated, they sought similar patent protection in their new homes. This led to the diffusion of patent systems to other countries.
providing any person with a monopoly to produce particular goods or provide particular services. Apart from the grant to John Kempe and his company mentioned above an early example of such letters patent was a grant by Henry VI
in 1449 to John of Utynam
, a Flemish man, for a 20 year monopoly for his invention.
This was the start of a long tradition by the English Crown
of granting of letters patent which granted monopolies to favoured persons (or people who were prepared to pay for them). Blackstone (same reference) also explains how "letters patent" (Latin "literae patentes", "letters that lie open") were so called because the seal hung from the foot of the document: they were addressed "To all to whom these presents shall come" and could be read without breaking the seal, as opposed to "letters close", addressed to a particular person who had to break the seal to read them.
This power was used to raise money for the Crown, and was widely abused, as the Crown granted patents in respect of all sorts of common goods (salt, for example). Consequently, the Court began to limit the circumstances in which they could be granted. After public outcry, James I of England
was forced to revoke all existing monopolies and declare that they were only to be used for "projects of new invention". This was incorporated into the Statute of Monopolies in which Parliament restricted the Crown's power explicitly so that the King could only issue letters patent to the inventors or introducers of original inventions for a fixed number of years.
In the reign of Queen Anne
(1702–1714) lawyers of the English Court developed the requirement that a written description of the invention must be submitted http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/patent/p-about/p-whatis/p-history/p-history-18century.htm. These developments, which were in place during the colonial period before independence of the U.S., were the foundation for patent law in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.
In the United Kingdom, the Patents Act 1977 harmonised UK patent law with the European Patent Convention
. Consequently, UK patent law is no longer based on the Statute of Monopolies, but an amalgam of UK and European practices. Coincidentally, the current length of UK/EU patents is still 20 years, similar to that of the original declaration by Henry VI
on the manufacture of stained glass (destined for Eton College
) http://ipmall.info/hosted_resources/lipa/patents/English_Statute1623.pdf.
introduced the concept of publishing the description of an invention in a patent in 1555. The first patent "specification" was to inventor Abel Foullon
for "Usaige & Description de l'holmetre", (a type of rangefinder
.) Publication was delayed until after the patent expired in 1561.
In France, patents were granted by the monarchy and by others institutions like the "Maison du Roi" and the Parliament of Paris. Most often novelty was examined by the Academy
. Digests were published irregularly starting in 1729 with delays of up to 60 years. Examinations were generally done in secret with no requirement to publish a description of the invention. Actual use of the invention was deemed adequate disclosure to the public. The modern French patent system was created during the Revolution
in 1791. Patents were granted without examination since inventor's right was considered as a natural one. Patent costs were very high (from 500 to 1500 francs). Importation patents protected new devices coming from foreign countries. The French patent law was revised in 1844 : patent cost was lowered and importation patents were abolished. In the 1860s, the French Patent system was contested by liberal economists. Another reform in 1902 allowed a better publication of patents.
a few inventors were able to obtain monopolies (i.e. "patents") to produce and sell their inventions. These monopolies were granted by petition to a given colony’s legislature.
In 1641, Samuel Winslow
was granted the first patent in North America by the Massachusetts General Court
for a new process for making salt. In 1646, the Province of Massachusetts Bay
granted inventor Joseph Jenks Sr. the exclusive right to set up water mills using a speedier engine he had developed for making edged tools, such as scythe
s. His monopoly was to run for 14 years.
The Patent and Copyright Clause
of the US Constitution was proposed in 1787 by James Madison
and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
. In Federalist No. 43
, Madison wrote, "The utility of the clause will scarcely be questioned. The copyright of authors has been solemnly adjudged, in Great Britain, to be a right of common law. The right to useful inventions seems with equal reason to belong to the inventors. The public good fully coincides in both cases with the claims of the individuals."
The first Patent Act of the U.S. Congress was passed on April 10, 1790, titled "An Act to promote the progress of useful Arts". It empowered (section 1) "the Secretary of State
, the Secretary for the department of war, and the Attorney General
, or any two of them" to approve the grant of a patent to an inventor fulfilling the appropriate formalities "if they shall deem the invention or discovery sufficiently useful and important". The first three members of this Patent Commission were Secretary of State
Thomas Jefferson
, Secretary of War Henry Knox
, and Attorney General
Edmund Randolph
.
The first patent was granted on July 31, 1790 to Samuel Hopkins
of Philadelphia for a method of producing potash (potassium carbonate), an essential ingredient used in making soap, glass, and gunpowder (Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, http://www.clpgh.org/clp/Scitech/invent/samhopkins.html). The method involved heating ashes from a wood fire to burn off any residual soot, thus making a more concentrated chemical.
The earliest law required that a working model
of each invention be submitted with the application. Patent applications were examined to determine if an inventor was entitled to the grant of a patent. The requirement for a working model was eventually dropped.
The Patent Law was revised in 1793. The rate of patent grants had grown to about 20 per year and the time burden on the Secretary of State was considered to be too burdensome. Patent applications were no longer examined. Patents were granted simply by submitting a written description of an invention, a model of the invention, if appropriate, and paying a fee of $30 ($1000 in 2006 US dollars). Currently, (35 U.S.C. Sec. 112) requires a written description of the invention only. The Commissioner of the USPTO may ask for additional information, patent drawing
s, or diagrams if the description is not clear.
The Patent Board was replaced by a clerk in the Department of State. James Madison
, Secretary of State, created a separate Patent Office
within the State Department and he appointed Dr. William Thornton
as its first superintendent in May 1802. On May 5, 1809 Mary Dixon Kies
became the first woman to be awarded a U.S. patent. In that same year a Philadelphia court ruled that all patent holders were "in violation of public rights." The ruling was overturned a short time later.
In 1810, the Patent Office moved from the Department of State to Blodgetts Hotel. In the same year, they opened the patent model storage to the general public.
The patent laws were again revised in 1836. The examination of patent applications was reinstituted. The number of patents granted per year had grown to about 700. Also in 1836 the government began construction of what is now called the Old Patent Office Building
, where the offices and models were housed from 1840 until 1932. The Patent Office is now housed in its own complex of buildings in Alexandria, Virginia.
The first 10,000 patents issued by the USPTO from July 1790 to July 1836 were destroyed in a fire in December 1836. About 2800 of them were later recovered, but the majority of them are still missing. The recovered patents are now called X-Patent
s because their patent numbers end with an "X."
In 1870 Congress passed "An Act to revise, consolidate, and amend the Statutes relating to Patents and Copyrights" (16 Stat. 198). This law mainly reorganized and reenacted existing law, but also made some important changes, such as giving the commissioner of patents the authority to draft rules and regulations for the Patent Office.
From 2005-2009, three consecutive US congressional sessions have debated a patent reform act that would shift the US to a first-to-file rule, limit damages for patent violations, and provide patent defendants more methods for defense. The most recent is the Patent Reform Act of 2009
.
American
Websites
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s and patent law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
s is generally considered to have started in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
with a Venetian Statute of 1474 which was issued by the Republic of Venice
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
. They issued a decree by which new and inventive devices, once they had been put into practice, had to be communicated to the Republic in order to obtain legal protection against potential infringers. The period of protection was 10 years.
Patents, however, existed before the Statute of 1474. In England grants in the form of “letters patent
Letters patent
Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch or president, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation...
” were issued by the sovereign to inventors who petitioned and were approved: a grant of 1331 to John Kempe and his Company is the earliest authenticated instance of a royal grant made with the avowed purpose of instructing the English in a new industry. The first Italian patent was actually awarded by the Republic of Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
in 1421, and there is evidence suggesting that something like patents was used among some ancient Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
cities. In 500 BC, in the Greek city of Sybaris
Sybaris
Sybaris was an ancient city in Magna Graecia on the western shore of the Gulf of Taranto. The wealth of the city during the 6th century BC was so great that the Sybarites became synonymous with pleasure and luxury...
(located in what is now southern Italy), "encouragement was held out to all who should discover any new refinement in luxury, the profits arising from which were secured to the inventor by patent for the space of a year."
Ancient Greece
AthenaeusAthenaeus
Athenaeus , of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD...
, writing in the third century CE, mentions that in 500 BC, in the Greek city of Sybaris
Sybaris
Sybaris was an ancient city in Magna Graecia on the western shore of the Gulf of Taranto. The wealth of the city during the 6th century BC was so great that the Sybarites became synonymous with pleasure and luxury...
(located in what is now southern Italy), there were annual culinary competitions. The victor was given the exclusive right to prepare his dish for one year. Charles Anthon
Charles Anthon
Charles Anthon was an American classical scholar.-Life:After graduating with honors at Columbia College in 1815, he began the study of law, and in 1819 was admitted to the bar, but never practiced...
expanded on this, saying that in Sybaris, "encouragement was held out to all who should discover any new refinement in luxury, the profits arising from which were secured to the inventor by patent for the space of a year."
Australia
In Australia, the system of granting patents in the Australian Colonies is based upon British law, and can be traced back to the English Statute of Monopolies of 1623. This was enacted in 1624. Prior to the Colonial states enacting their own legislation in the mid 19th Century and forming their own Patent Offices, inventors applied to England for patent registration and protection.When legislatures were established in the Australian Colonies, people could apply (petition the parliament) for a patent to be granted by the Governor of the colony, by way of a Private Bill. The first of these was South Australian Private Act No.1 of 1848, granted to Andrew John Murray of Adelaide, S.A. for "An improved windlass", on the 20th June 1848, for a period of 10 years. A further three Private Acts were granted in South Australia; and several were granted in Western Australia.
The first patent act in Australia, other than private acts, was introduced into New South Wales in 1852 (coming into force on 10 January 1854.) Victoria proclaimed its first Patent Act in 1854, with the length of the grant being for 14 years.
The administration of the States Patents Acts (NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA and Tasmania) was transferred to the Commonwealth of Australia from 1 June 1904. IP Australia is the Australian Government agency responsible for administering patents, as well as trade marks, designs and plant breeder’s rights in Australia.
Italy
The Florentine architect Filippo BrunelleschiFilippo Brunelleschi
Filippo Brunelleschi was one of the foremost architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance. He is perhaps most famous for inventing linear perspective and designing the dome of the Florence Cathedral, but his accomplishments also included bronze artwork, architecture , mathematics,...
received a three year patent for a barge with hoisting
Hoist (device)
A hoist is a device used for lifting or lowering a load by means of a drum or lift-wheel around which rope or chain wraps. It may be manually operated, electrically or pneumatically driven and may use chain, fiber or wire rope as its lifting medium. The load is attached to the hoist by means of a...
gear, that carried marble along the Arno River in 1421.
Patents were systematically granted in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
as of 1450. These were mostly in the field of glass making. As Venitians emigrated, they sought similar patent protection in their new homes. This led to the diffusion of patent systems to other countries.
England
In England the Crown issued letters patentLetters patent
Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch or president, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation...
providing any person with a monopoly to produce particular goods or provide particular services. Apart from the grant to John Kempe and his company mentioned above an early example of such letters patent was a grant by Henry VI
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
in 1449 to John of Utynam
John of Utynam
John of Utynam is the recipient of the first known English patent.-Background:John was a master glass-maker from Flanders. He came to England to make the windows for Eton College.-Patent:The patent was granted in 1449 by King Henry VI of England...
, a Flemish man, for a 20 year monopoly for his invention.
This was the start of a long tradition by the English Crown
The Crown
The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...
of granting of letters patent which granted monopolies to favoured persons (or people who were prepared to pay for them). Blackstone (same reference) also explains how "letters patent" (Latin "literae patentes", "letters that lie open") were so called because the seal hung from the foot of the document: they were addressed "To all to whom these presents shall come" and could be read without breaking the seal, as opposed to "letters close", addressed to a particular person who had to break the seal to read them.
This power was used to raise money for the Crown, and was widely abused, as the Crown granted patents in respect of all sorts of common goods (salt, for example). Consequently, the Court began to limit the circumstances in which they could be granted. After public outcry, James I of England
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
was forced to revoke all existing monopolies and declare that they were only to be used for "projects of new invention". This was incorporated into the Statute of Monopolies in which Parliament restricted the Crown's power explicitly so that the King could only issue letters patent to the inventors or introducers of original inventions for a fixed number of years.
In the reign of Queen Anne
Anne of Great Britain
Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...
(1702–1714) lawyers of the English Court developed the requirement that a written description of the invention must be submitted http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/patent/p-about/p-whatis/p-history/p-history-18century.htm. These developments, which were in place during the colonial period before independence of the U.S., were the foundation for patent law in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.
In the United Kingdom, the Patents Act 1977 harmonised UK patent law with the European Patent Convention
European Patent Convention
The Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, commonly known as the European Patent Convention , is a multilateral treaty instituting the European Patent Organisation and providing an autonomous legal system according to which European patents are granted...
. Consequently, UK patent law is no longer based on the Statute of Monopolies, but an amalgam of UK and European practices. Coincidentally, the current length of UK/EU patents is still 20 years, similar to that of the original declaration by Henry VI
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
on the manufacture of stained glass (destined for Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
) http://ipmall.info/hosted_resources/lipa/patents/English_Statute1623.pdf.
France
King Henry IIHenry II of France
Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559.-Early years:Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, the son of Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany .His father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by his sworn enemy,...
introduced the concept of publishing the description of an invention in a patent in 1555. The first patent "specification" was to inventor Abel Foullon
Abel Foullon
Abel Foullon; France, was an author, director of the Mint for Henry II of France and also an engineer to the king of France after Leonardo da Vinci....
for "Usaige & Description de l'holmetre", (a type of rangefinder
Rangefinder
A rangefinder is a device that measures distance from the observer to a target, for the purposes of surveying, determining focus in photography, or accurately aiming a weapon. Some devices use active methods to measure ; others measure distance using trigonometry...
.) Publication was delayed until after the patent expired in 1561.
In France, patents were granted by the monarchy and by others institutions like the "Maison du Roi" and the Parliament of Paris. Most often novelty was examined by the Academy
French Academy of Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research...
. Digests were published irregularly starting in 1729 with delays of up to 60 years. Examinations were generally done in secret with no requirement to publish a description of the invention. Actual use of the invention was deemed adequate disclosure to the public. The modern French patent system was created during the Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
in 1791. Patents were granted without examination since inventor's right was considered as a natural one. Patent costs were very high (from 500 to 1500 francs). Importation patents protected new devices coming from foreign countries. The French patent law was revised in 1844 : patent cost was lowered and importation patents were abolished. In the 1860s, the French Patent system was contested by liberal economists. Another reform in 1902 allowed a better publication of patents.
United States
During the period of America’s Thirteen ColoniesThirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...
a few inventors were able to obtain monopolies (i.e. "patents") to produce and sell their inventions. These monopolies were granted by petition to a given colony’s legislature.
In 1641, Samuel Winslow
Samuel Winslow (patentee)
In 1641, Samuel Winslow was granted the first patent in North America by the Massachusetts General Court for a new process for making salt....
was granted the first patent in North America by the Massachusetts General Court
Massachusetts General Court
The Massachusetts General Court is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the Colonial Era, when this body also sat in judgment of judicial appeals cases...
for a new process for making salt. In 1646, the Province of Massachusetts Bay
Province of Massachusetts Bay
The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a crown colony in North America. It was chartered on October 7, 1691 by William and Mary, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of England and Scotland...
granted inventor Joseph Jenks Sr. the exclusive right to set up water mills using a speedier engine he had developed for making edged tools, such as scythe
Scythe
A scythe is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass, or reaping crops. It was largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor machinery, but is still used in some areas of Europe and Asia. The Grim Reaper is often depicted carrying or wielding a scythe...
s. His monopoly was to run for 14 years.
The Patent and Copyright Clause
Copyright Clause
Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution, known as the Copyright Clause, empowers the United States Congress:- Other Terms :This clause is also referred to as:* Copyright and Patent Clause* Patent and Copyright Clause...
of the US Constitution was proposed in 1787 by James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Charles Cotesworth “C. C.” Pinckney , was an early American statesman of South Carolina, Revolutionary War veteran, and delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He was twice nominated by the Federalist Party as their presidential candidate, but he did not win either election.-Early life and...
. In Federalist No. 43
Federalist No. 43
Federalist No. 43 is an essay by James Madison, the forty-third of the Federalist Papers. It was published on January 23, 1788 under the pseudonym Publius, the name under which all the Federalist Papers were published. This paper continues a theme begun by Madison in Federalist No. 42...
, Madison wrote, "The utility of the clause will scarcely be questioned. The copyright of authors has been solemnly adjudged, in Great Britain, to be a right of common law. The right to useful inventions seems with equal reason to belong to the inventors. The public good fully coincides in both cases with the claims of the individuals."
The first Patent Act of the U.S. Congress was passed on April 10, 1790, titled "An Act to promote the progress of useful Arts". It empowered (section 1) "the Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
, the Secretary for the department of war, and the Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
, or any two of them" to approve the grant of a patent to an inventor fulfilling the appropriate formalities "if they shall deem the invention or discovery sufficiently useful and important". The first three members of this Patent Commission were Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, Secretary of War Henry Knox
Henry Knox
Henry Knox was a military officer of the Continental Army and later the United States Army, and also served as the first United States Secretary of War....
, and Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
Edmund Randolph
Edmund Randolph
Edmund Jennings Randolph was an American attorney, the seventh Governor of Virginia, the second Secretary of State, and the first United States Attorney General.-Biography:...
.
The first patent was granted on July 31, 1790 to Samuel Hopkins
Samuel Hopkins
Samuel Hopkins may refer to:*Samuel Hopkins , American inventor who was awarded the first US patent for a process to refine potash...
of Philadelphia for a method of producing potash (potassium carbonate), an essential ingredient used in making soap, glass, and gunpowder (Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, http://www.clpgh.org/clp/Scitech/invent/samhopkins.html). The method involved heating ashes from a wood fire to burn off any residual soot, thus making a more concentrated chemical.
The earliest law required that a working model
Patent model
A patent model was a scratch-built miniature model no larger than 12" by 12" by 12" that showed how an invention works...
of each invention be submitted with the application. Patent applications were examined to determine if an inventor was entitled to the grant of a patent. The requirement for a working model was eventually dropped.
The Patent Law was revised in 1793. The rate of patent grants had grown to about 20 per year and the time burden on the Secretary of State was considered to be too burdensome. Patent applications were no longer examined. Patents were granted simply by submitting a written description of an invention, a model of the invention, if appropriate, and paying a fee of $30 ($1000 in 2006 US dollars). Currently, (35 U.S.C. Sec. 112) requires a written description of the invention only. The Commissioner of the USPTO may ask for additional information, patent drawing
Patent drawing
A patent application or patent may contain drawings, also called patent drawings, illustrating the invention, some of its embodiments , or the prior art...
s, or diagrams if the description is not clear.
The Patent Board was replaced by a clerk in the Department of State. James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
, Secretary of State, created a separate Patent Office
Patent office
A patent office is a governmental or intergovernmental organization which controls the issue of patents. In other words, "patent offices are government bodies that may grant a patent or reject the patent application based on whether or not the application fulfils the requirements for...
within the State Department and he appointed Dr. William Thornton
William Thornton
Dr. William Thornton was a British-American physician, inventor, painter and architect who designed the United States Capitol, an authentic polymath...
as its first superintendent in May 1802. On May 5, 1809 Mary Dixon Kies
Mary Dixon Kies
Mary Dixon Kies was an early 19th-century American who was the first recipient of a patent granted to a woman by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, on May 5, 1809, which was for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.-Biography:Her father was John Dixon born in 1679 in...
became the first woman to be awarded a U.S. patent. In that same year a Philadelphia court ruled that all patent holders were "in violation of public rights." The ruling was overturned a short time later.
In 1810, the Patent Office moved from the Department of State to Blodgetts Hotel. In the same year, they opened the patent model storage to the general public.
The patent laws were again revised in 1836. The examination of patent applications was reinstituted. The number of patents granted per year had grown to about 700. Also in 1836 the government began construction of what is now called the Old Patent Office Building
Old Patent Office Building
The historic Old Patent Office Building in Washington, D.C. covers an entire city block defined by F and G Streets and 7th and 9th Streets NW in Chinatown. After undergoing extensive renovations, the building reopened on July 1, 2006 and was renamed The Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art...
, where the offices and models were housed from 1840 until 1932. The Patent Office is now housed in its own complex of buildings in Alexandria, Virginia.
The first 10,000 patents issued by the USPTO from July 1790 to July 1836 were destroyed in a fire in December 1836. About 2800 of them were later recovered, but the majority of them are still missing. The recovered patents are now called X-Patent
X-Patent
The X-Patents are all the patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office from July 1790 , to July 1836. The actual number is unknown, but the best estimate is 9,957. The records were burned in a fire, in December 1836, while in temporary storage...
s because their patent numbers end with an "X."
In 1870 Congress passed "An Act to revise, consolidate, and amend the Statutes relating to Patents and Copyrights" (16 Stat. 198). This law mainly reorganized and reenacted existing law, but also made some important changes, such as giving the commissioner of patents the authority to draft rules and regulations for the Patent Office.
From 2005-2009, three consecutive US congressional sessions have debated a patent reform act that would shift the US to a first-to-file rule, limit damages for patent violations, and provide patent defendants more methods for defense. The most recent is the Patent Reform Act of 2009
Patent Reform Act of 2009
The Patent Reform Act of 2009 was a set of proposals introduced in the 111th United States Congress for changes in United States patent law. Senators Orrin Hatch and Patrick Leahy introduced a Senate bill on March 3, 2009. Representative John Conyers introduced the House version, H.R. 1260, the...
.
See also
- Intellectual propertyIntellectual propertyIntellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
- History of copyright lawHistory of copyright lawThe history of copyright law starts with early privileges and monopolies granted to printers of books. The British Statute of Anne 1709, full title "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein...
- History of United States patent lawHistory of United States patent law"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;" From the United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 8....
- United States patent case law
- Scire faciasScire faciasIn English law, a writ of scire facias was a writ founded upon some judicial record directing the sheriff to make the record known to a specified party, and requiring that defendant to show cause why the party bringing the writ should not be able to cite that record in his own interest, or why,...
External links
First patentsAmerican
- X Series : "Improvements in making pot ash and pearle ash"
- 1st Numerical : "Traction Wheel"
- 1st Design : Script font type
- 1st Reissued : "Grain Drill"
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