Although there is
some evidence suggesting that something like
patents were used among some ancient Greek cities, most
historians agree that patents in the
modern sense originated in Italy in 1474. The
Republic of Venice issued a decree by which new and inventive
devices had to be
communicated to the Republic in order to obtain legal protection.
In the United States, during the colonial period and
Articles of Confederation years (1778-1789), several states
adopted patent systems of their own. The first Congress adopted
a Patent Act, in 1790.
Since its founding in 1790 the United States Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued over 7 million patents, of
that number approximately 70 thousand have become legitimate
products. Although most patents are obscure and long forgotten,
in the 1% that did become successful are some very significant
inventions that have changed the way we live our lives. We have
grouped these historic patents into three distinct time periods
to ease your review of these inventions. |
TO
LEARN MORE
RELATED INFORMATION:
Book Resources on the subject of Patents. from The Great Idea Finder
First
Patent Issued from The Great Idea Finder
Patent Information including history and
purpose. from The Great Idea Finder
Prolific Inventors
based upon the number of
Patents issued
from The Great Idea Finder
Rumor
Has It everything has been invented.
from The Great Idea Finder
Web Resources dedicated to
Patents. from The Great Idea Finder
ON THE WEB:
Significant Patents
Prepared by Jim Bieberich, Patent Historian for Mall USA,
Inc. .
(URL: www.uspat.com/historical/index.shtml)
Weird and Wonderful Patents
Over the years, inventors have tried to solve many of the
problems of daily life. Prepared by Brown & Michaels, PC.
(URL: www.bpmlegal.com/weird.html)
Delphion's
Patent Gallery
You can visit both the Gallery of Historic Patents and the
(URL: www.delphion.com/historic)
Cincinnati Library
Patent Collection
Government Resources · Patents, Trademark, and Copyright, Online
Resource List and more.
(URL:
www.cincinnatilibrary.org/resources/government.asp?section=1&category=27)
Patent Statistics Reports Available For Viewing
Reports prepared by the USPTO Patent Technology Monitoring
Division
(URL: www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/reports.htm)
The X Files
Contains an extensive list of patents issued prior to 1836. The
author of this home page is not identified.
(URL: home.xnet.com/~rcallen/patent/shotgunx.htm)
Google
Patent Search (beta version)
As part of Google’s mission to organize the world’s information
and make it universally accessible and useful, we’re constantly
working to expand the diversity of content we make available to
our users. With Google Patent Search, you can now search the
full text of the U.S. patent corpus and find patents that
interest you. Over 7 million U.S. patents issued from 1790 to
the present are available in Google's database. |
