Welcome to the National Inventors Hall of Fame and Museum
In 2009, the National Inventors Hall of Fame moved from Akron, Ohio to the United States Patent and Trademark campus in Alexandria, Virginia and became part of the USPTO Museum. The new venue features interactive exhibits, a high definition video theatre and a portrait gallery. In the gallery historical and living figures come to life and talk about the history of invention and the USPTO. There is also a gift shop.
Museum Hours
Open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Open Saturday from noon to 4:00 p.m. Closed on Sundays and federal holidays.
Visiting the National Inventors Hall of Fame and Museum
The National Inventors Hall of Fame and Museum is located in the Atrium of the United States Patent and Trademark Office's Madison Building, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, Virginia, and easily accessible from the King Street and Eisenhower Avenue Metro stations.
Please check our locations page to obtain information about local mass transportation systems, to view a larger area map, and to obtain driving directions.
Exhibits
National Inventors Hall of Fame and Museum Hosts “Inventive Links” Exhibit
The “Inventive Links” exhibit illustrates the unexpected way in which modern technology is interlinked. Visitors take a journey along the exhibit wall and view six unique sections starting with a question and following the connections. With a little inventiveness and some detective work, you will see how each path links the innovations of a variety of inventors inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
The Portrait Gallery exhibit features digital electronic portraits of United States Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison; famous inventor Thomas Edison; National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees Helen Free, who developed home testing for diabetes, and Steve Wozniak, in the inventor and co-founder of Apple Computer; and the Acting Director of the USPTO John Doll. The gallery portraits, through the magic of computer-generated special effects and exclusive control software, spontaneously come to life, interactively engaging in humorous banter that highlights the history and growth of America’s intellectual property protection system.
Michael Jackson Patent Exhibit at USPTO National Inventors Hall of Fame and Museum
The USPTO National Inventors Hall of Fame and Museum opened a special exhibit this summer that includes materials from the USPTO’s files of Michael Jackson’s patent (No. No. 5,255,452) and trademark applications. Jackson is the co-inventor of a “system for allowing a shoe wearer to lean forwardly beyond his center of gravity by virtue of wearing a specially designed pair of shoes which will engage with a hitch member movably projectable through a stage surface.” Included in the application is an original sample of Michael Joseph Jackson’s signature and drawings of his invention. The exhibit features various examples of Jackson’s trademarks, including United States Registration No. 1,908,209, MICHAEL JACKSON for, “sound recordings; namely, pre-recorded phonograph records, audio tapes, compact discs, videotapes, and motion picture films featuring music and entertainment.”
The Isaac Fleischmann Theatre
The Isaac Fleischmann Theatre located in the National Inventors Hall of Fame and Museum. The theatre was dedicated in honor of Isaac Fleischmann, the first director of the USPTO’s public affairs office, in August 2007. Fleischman was an enthusiastic, eloquent and persuasive advocate of America’s intellectual property protection system for more than 50 years. The theatre is open to the public and currently showing the video, XTRAORDINARY Innovations, which uses the X-games as an example of how important patents and trademarks are to all aspects of our society.
Tour Information
School and group tours are welcome at the museum. Please contact tours@uspto.gov or the Office of Public Affairs at 571-272-8400 at least two weeks ahead of time to schedule a tour.
Information packets about patents and trademarks may be requested from the USPTO Contact Center (UCC).
What is Intellectual Property?
It is imagination made real. It is the ownership of dream, an idea, an improvement, an emotion that we can touch, see, hear, and feel. It is an asset just like your home, your car, or your bank account.
Just like other kinds of property, intellectual property needs to be protected from unauthorized use. There are four ways to protect different types of intellectual property:
PATENTS provide rights for up to 20 years for inventions in three broad categories:
- Utility patents protect useful processes, machines, articles of manufacture, and compositions of matter. Some examples: fiber optics, computer hardware, medications.
- Design patents guard the unauthorized use of new, original, and ornamental designs for articles of manufacture. The look of an athletic shoe, a bicycle helmet, the Star Wars characters are all protected by design patents.
- Plant patents are the way we protect invented or discovered, asexually reproduced plant varieties. Hybrid tea roses, Silver Queen corn, Better Boy tomatoes are all types of plant patents.
- TRADEMARKS protect words, names, symbols, sounds, or colors that distinguish goods and services. Trademarks, unlike patents, can be renewed forever as long as they are being used in business. The roar of the MGM lion, the pink of the Owens-Corning insulation, and the shape of a Coca-Cola bottle are familiar trademarks.
- COPYRIGHTS protect works of authorship, such as writings, music, and works of art that have been tangibly expressed. The Library of Congress registers copyrights which last the life of the author plus 50 years. Gone With The Wind (the book and the film), Beatles recordings, and video games are all works that are copyrighted.
- TRADE SECRETS are information that companies keep secret to give them an advantage over their competitors. The formula for Coca-Cola is the most famous trade secret.
- If you are an intellectual property owner, you should protect your rights. If you are a user, you should respect them. It is just as wrong to steal intellectual property as it is to break into a home, steal a car, or rob a bank.
