Alan Rothschild

Inventor • Author • Entrepreneur

The Creation of the US Patent Office

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The Creation of the US Patent Office, Alan Rothschild, @patentmodelman

The Creation of the US Patent Office

It is April 10, 1790. President George Washington has just signed a bill to create the United States Patent Office. For the first time in American history, the right of an inventor to profit from his or her invention is recognized by law. Previously, privileges granted to an inventor were dependent upon the prerogative of a monarch or upon a special act of a legislature.

The Constitution

The Constitution ( Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8) empowers Congress:
“Congress shall have the power 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.”

Although a great first step, the examination process was soon criticized as taking unreasonably too much time. At the same time, the people responsible for examining and granting patents had other important duties to attend to and could not carry out the process quickly (Source: Wikipedia).

The Patent Act of 1793

In 1793, the 1790 act was repealed and replaced by the Patent Act of 1793. The act was notable for its definition of the subjects of patents which remains unchanged until now: “any new and useful art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter and any new and useful improvement on any art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter.”

In this later act, the patent application process was much simpler than in the Patent Act of 1790. People who sought patents only needed to petition the Secretary of State and then it was the duty of the Secretary of State to acquire examination from the Attorney General. The examination process was simplified by dropping the clause that patented inventions needed to be “sufficiently useful and important”.

It was enough that inventions were somehow useful, even if the usefulness was insignificant, and “not before known or used” to be granted patents.

 

For more information on the history of patent models, take a look at my book Inventing a Better Mousetrap, available now on Amazon. Read an excerpt here. The Creation of the US Patent Office, Alan Rothschild, @patentmodelman
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