Journeys of Innovation

Each month, the USPTO seeks to inspire and encourage innovation by sharing relatable stories that chronicle the journeys of inventors and entrepreneurs. We shed light on where they got their start, the challenges they faced, and what it took to bring their ideas to fruition and their brands to life. The stories also emphasize the importance of creating and protecting intellectual property, and the critical role it plays in innovation.

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Featured this month
Seeds of change
Suffragist inventors
Inventors and the right to vote
Full story
Abraham Lincoln in the foreground with historical patent documents and a sketch of a steamboat on a river in the background
A guide through troubled waters
Abraham Lincoln
The Statue of Liberty fading into a sketch from left to right, with the torch and Bartholdi’s patent in the background
Lighting the way
The Statue of Liberty
Ted Hoffman
Creating heaven from organized chaos
Ted Hoff
A photo of Esther Takeuchi standing a lab holding up a small device.
Powering the possible
Esther Sans Takeuchi
A photo of Mark Twain appears on the page of an old book. The page also shows the Mississippi River and clippings from one of his trademark and patent certificates.
Unswerving irregularity
Samuel Clemens
A photo of Federico Faggin is placed behind a floating microprocessor chip. Layered above the chip is a boy playing with a toy airplane.
From model airplanes to microprocessors
Federico Faggin
A photo of John Adler in front of medical equipment. Neurosurgeon, inventor, and surfing enthusiast John Adler uses his understanding of energy and desire to help patients to patent a system that can provide therapeutic radiation while protecting healthy tissue.
Focusing energy
John Adler
Man with short dark hair and mustache posing for a photograph wearing a 1850s-era suit.
The grandest trip on earth
Thaddeus Lowe
Portrait of Anna Keichline
Building a legacy brick by brick
Anna Keichline
Portraits of John Harold Johnson (middle), Eunice Johnson (right), and Harry Pace (left) are placed in the center of a graphic.
The small dreams of a business giant
John H. Johnson
Art Fry, the inventor of post it notes, looks down at a book. He is smiling. In the background, behind Art, post it notes are attached to a wall.
Sticking to it
Art Fry
Inventor and entrepreneur Charu Thomas layered above a photo of a warehouse AR graphics
Delivering grit and positivity
Charu Thomas
Kevin White stands in front of vision test poster. Behind the graphic, there is a faded photo of a man wearing special eyeglasses that are used to take vision tests.
Serendipity-sharpened focus
J. Kevin White
Ralph Teetor is pictured next to a vintage car illustration and an old newspaper headline clipping that reads "a blind inventor develops car speed-control device."
A brilliant touch
Ralph Teetor
Composite image of a young woman in front of a medical device with patent text and images overlaid.
At the heart of invention
Katia Avila Pinedo
Sumita Mitra wearing her National Inventors Hall of Fame medal, in front of images of a painting of grapes and nanoparticles.
Curiosity and clusters
Sumita Mitra
a 19th century black and white portrait of a very studious Black man wearing glasses superimposed in an image of documents on a drafting table
Bringing light for all
Lewis Latimer
Surgeon and researcher Dr. Charles Drew sitting in front of a microscope while wearing a white lab coat.
Planting a tradition of excellence
Dr. Charles Drew
A portrait of Maria Telkes superimposed on a background of her patent drawings.
A solar life
Dr. Maria Telkes
Photos of Robert Pelham and Miriam Benjamin and James Wormley’s U.S. patent no. 242,091 for a life saving apparatus overlaid on a detailed, colorized map of Washington, D.C.
A district of determination
James Wormley, Miriam Benjamin, and Robert Pelham
Duane Sander and Al Kurtenbach standing next to each other and smiling in front of dark green pine trees. Sander wears a tan dress shirt without tie and Kurtenbach wears a blue polo shirt with a Daktronics logo. 2023. Photo by David Kadas/USPTO.
Living with intention
Aelred "Al" Kurtenbach and Duane Sander
An elderly man wearing a blue collared shirt and black eyeglasses blows bubbles towards the camera using a battery-powered bubble gun.
A legacy of love, loyalty, and laughter
Eddy Goldfarb
Garrett Morgan with a medal pinned to his suit jacket alongside drawings from his smoke hood and traffic signal patent
Of courage and caution
Garrett Morgan
Portrait of Dr. Robert Bryant smiling and in a white button up shirt with a blue lanyard
A visionary with heart
Dr. Robert Bryant
Chemist in lab coat and safety goggles surrounded by lab equipment
The cactus chemist: Dr. Norma Alcantar
Dr. Norma Alcantar
Woman in blue dress stands in front of a museum display of Gatorade inventor
Gatorade legacy whets daughter’s thirst for…
Phoebe Cade Miles and Dr. James Robert Cade
Francisco Laboy and Vanessa Carballido, co-founders of Genmoji, standing in front of a backdrop that reads “GES Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2019 United States | The Netherlands.”
A renewable resolve
Vanessa Carballido Clerch and Francisco Laboy Colondres
A black and white photograph of a woman and her young son centered on the left and superimposed on top of a 1980s Liquid Paper print advertisement.
Perseverance, thy name is Bette
Bette Nesmith Graham
A man stands in front of an aquatically-cultured taro field in Hawaii with mountains in the background
Cultivating community-driven change: Olin…
Olin Kealoha Lagon
A male high school student wearing a white t-shirt sits at a table with a trifold poster board in the background detailing his garbage can platform invention.
From inspired to inspiring
Damian Earley
Bathed in sunshine, a young girl with a bowl-cut wearing a jeans jumper and socks, cozily curls up on a pillowy, pastel-floral window seat and reads to her doll from a book in her lap. Several additional books whose covers match the doll by her side are strewn about.
A girl’s window into history
Pleasant Rowland
Black and white photos of Henry Baker and George Washington Murray, two African American men wearing suits and ties, with a handwritten list of inventors and their patents in the background
Found on Baker’s list
Henry Baker and George Washington Murray
Three fashionably dressed white women surrounding a desk, posing and admiring posters of Page Boy store fronts
Making maternity wear fashionable
The Frankfurt sisters
Three women with dark tan skin, brown hair, and long neutral-colored long sleeve tops smiling at a dinner table set with food, wine, and flowers.
Second act
Tanya Bryant
Tara Astigarraga stands in front of the red and green cliffs of the Grand Canyon, smiling and facing the camera. She wears sunglasses on the top of her head and a gray and white tank top with an outline of the state of Oklahoma and the words “Choctaw” written in cursive.
Conquering impostor syndrome
Tara Astigarraga
Two employees stand side by side at a counter wearing beige aprons with the Bitty and Beau's logo. They smile at each other and link arms. Coffee machines are in the background.
Innovating for inclusivity
Amy and Ben Wright
Daniela Blanco, a brown-haired young Latino woman, wears a white lab coat, safety glasses, and plastic gloves as she stands amid chemistry equipment in a well stocked lab. She pauses her experiment momentarily to smile at the camera.
A sustainable pivot
Daniela Blanco
Two young teenagers wearing Camp Invention t-shirts in a school hallway
A family of entrepreneurs
Mika’il and Ayaan Naqvi
With a colorful purple buzzcut, tank top, and sunglasses, scientist Natalia Bilenko smiles in the sun and heat as she works alongside others to assemble metal struts and wiring to form the sculpture “Dr.Brainlove.”
Artificial intelligence for all
Natalia Bilenko
In a white lab coat, Dr. Patricia Bath smiles into the camera.
Sights on the prize
Patricia Bath
A middle-aged woman in a silk dress sitting in a chair while examining a typewriter
"There's a better way of doing…
Beulah Louise Henry
Gitanjali Rao presenting at a white board during the 3M competition
One girl's commitment
Gitanjali Rao
Lanny Smoot smiles while twisting a knob on a large machine as a Walt Disney Company employee
As if by magic
Lanny Smoot
Patent #9,511,833 received by Doug Scott and students for their ROV ice rescue robot.
”Let's do this for real”
Doug Scott
In typical Victorian dress, Samuel Allen poses for a formal portrait photograph.
The sled that steers
Samuel Leeds Allen
An older man, George Gillespie, in full military uniform with several medals, including the Medal of Honor pinned to his lapel.
Uncommon design, uncommon valor
George Gillespie
Debbie Sterling and two girls play with GoldieBlox on the floor.
Building blocks of opportunity
Debbie Sterling
Johnny Pacheco sits on cushions and faces the camera. He wears an embroidered linen shirt.
Inventing salsa
Johnny Pacheco
Audrey Sherman poses in her stairwell with the plaques she received from 3M for her patents.
Driving innovation
Audrey Sherman
Kavita Shukla holding sheets of FreshPaper in a carton that says “fresh for all” at a farmers market in front of a table advertising FreshPaper
Keeping innovation fresh
Kavita Shukla
Maude Adams wearing a tunic, skirt, sash, and beads stands at three-quarters profile, framed by trees in the background, and looks off to the right.
Out of the limelight
Maude Adams
The Kinnos team poses in scrubs around the USAID logo.
Innovating to fight Ebola
Kinnos
Jim and Jane Henson pose with several puppets.
Reframing entertainment
Jim Henson
United States postage stamp showing the trefoil badge and Juliette Gordon Low in a Girl Scout uniform.
A patent for girls’ empowerment
Juliette Gordon Low
Arlyne Simon stands in front of two body scan images.
Cultivating curiosity
Arlyne Simon
Lex and Santiago pose on either side of a vintage letter press with framed cards in the background.
Mail that makes memories
Lex Monson
Marissa Streng holds her hands out toward her dog Mojo.
Dogged determination
Marissa Streng
garrett brown sitting in middle of evolution of six chairs in white studio
LOOK OUT!
Garrett Brown
Headshot of Marian Croak
Positively connected
Marian Croak
Sangeeta Bhatia is pictured in front of a shelf filled with bottles and other lab equipment.
Tiny particles make a big impact
Sangeeta Bhatia
Portrait of Hinda Miller, Polly Smith, and Lisa Lindahl.
Establishing the new fit
Hinda Miller, Polly Smith, and Lisa Lindahl
A man in a white coat works with equipment in a laboratory.
Surmounting the insurmountable
Percy Julian
Martine Rothblatt(excitedly jumping) and the team from Tier one engineering proudly celebrating in front red Electric helicopter that, with the word lung written on it, huge smile, that just set Guinesss World Record being awarded plaque
Persistence is omnipotent
Martine Rothblatt
Floyd Smith parachute exhibit and the accompanying virtual skydive video
Pulling the rip cord
Floyd Smith
Jackie Quinn examines a piece of equipment on the ground with four team members working in the background
From the ground up
Jackie Quinn
Susann Keohane and co-worker at the IBM aging in place environment/lab with the friendly looking Multi-Purpose Eldercare Robot Assistant (IBM MERA), a first of a kind Watson-enabled application designed to aid the elderly and assist caregivers with real-time information about their health.
Augmenting ability
Susann Keohane
Shawn Springs holds two helmets and poses in front of a wall of helmets.
The coolest award I have
Shawn Springs
A left hand rests on a tabulation machine, and a right hand picks up a card.
Count me in
Herman Hollerith
Jim West in a laboratory with three of his graduate students.
Going beyond the horizon
Jim West
Bob Metcalfe holding an Ethernet cable
Defying the doubters
Bob Metcalfe
Rory Cooper in leaned back in a racing chair on a red track, leaned down to become aerodynamic, pushing himself to win
Engineering a better life
Rory Cooper
Image: 1950s KitchenAid illustrated advertisement of a housewife and husband excitedly admiring their new dishwasher. I the top right, dishes magically float from a hospital and industrial dishwasher into their household dishwasher.
"I'll do it myself"
Josephine Cochrane
Portrait of Temple Grandin
Thinking like the herd
Temple Grandin
Image: The Black and Decker cordless Lunar Drill operated by an astronaut on a simulated surface of moon
Moondust and marketing magic
Carroll Gantz
Young founders of Agrospheres sitting casually on a couch
Origins of innovation
Payam Pourtaheri and Ameer Shakleel
Image: Helmeted U.S. soldiers look out over the prow of a Higgens boat as it navigates crashing waves towards the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.
The patented boat that won the war
Andrew Higgins
Image: Port City® Brewing Company founders Bill and Karen Butcher in the brewery’s taproom hold six packs of some of their registered trademark beers, including, from left, Optimal® Wit, Metro Red®, Monumental® IPA, and Integral® IPA.
Brewing the brand
Bill and Karen Butcher
Image: Chemist Frances Arnold holds a beaker with yellow liquid up to the light.
Beyond the Nobel
Frances Arnold
Image: Johnson plays around with a Super Soaker® while wearing a shirt patterned with images of his famous creation.
Perseverance and prototypes
Lonnie Johnson
Image: Irina Buhimschi and Cherry Murray speak on a panel at the US Capitol on empowering women
Failure or challenge?
Irina Buhimschi and Cherry Murray
Image: Crops being irrigated in the California Imperial Valley, circa 1919.
A strong will
Harriet Strong
Image: Student studying at night using solar lights
An end to darkness
Steve Katsaros
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