Brief History of Patents in the United States
I'm Rich Beem. I'm a patent attorney in Chicago and I'd like to tell you a little bit about the history of patents, particularly in the United States, which has one of the first and oldest patent systems in the entire world.
Patents were provided for in the US Constitution. They were considered to be important to help this country to grow and to prosper and to compete in the world to advance the progress of technology. That's what patents are all about is to encourage inventions and to encourage and provide an incentive and a reward for the disclosure of those inventions because that's how technology advances.
Our first patent act was passed in 1790 and the first patents were actually signed by the President and the Secretary of State and the Attorney General. That continued until 1836. In those first 46 years of the United States there were about 10,000 patent applications filed. And almost all of those issued as patents.
Now about those same numbers of patents are issued just about every week, every Tuesday that's when patents are issued at the patent office.
Patents were important even during the War of 1812 when Washington D.C. was burned at the hands of the British. The capital was burned. The patent office was spared because the director of the patent office prevailed on the soldiers that it would be a crime against humanity to burn the patents and the patent models. He said it would be like burning the library at Alexandria, a crime against humanity. So the patent office was spared.
Presidents continued to be personally and actively involved in patents. You could say even to this day. But one of the presidents who was most active with technology and patents after those first seven or eight presidents who actually signed patents, one of the next to really be active was Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln is the only US President to actually have a patent issued to him as an inventor. You may recall that he lived as a young man in rural Illinois and he tried to improve the navigation of the Sangamon River. The river was shallow and boats often got hung up on the shoals. So he developed a system of floatation for lifting the boats off the shoals. And he submitted a patent model, which used to be required at that time, and obtained the issuance of a patent in his own name on that method for lifting boats off shoals. He also was very interested in technology during the Civil War and was very active in examining that technology and was very interested in the activity in the patent office.
Why do I mention this to you? It's because you have an interest in patents and you may be interested in advancing technology yourself and obtaining some of the rewards for advancing technology, rewards that can be obtained through a US Patent. It all starts with a patent application. And one way to start that is to call me. That's what I do. I prepare and file and enforce and defend patent infringement cases. I can be reached at my office at 312-201-0011. Thank you.
