America's innovative history
The early patent system
As the world’s longest surviving written charter of government, the Constitution is the supreme law of our nation. The foundations of the intellectual property system in America are enshrined in article 1, section 8, clause 8, which grants Congress 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.”
In 1790, Congress built on this foundation by passing the first Patent Act in U.S. history. Earlier that year, President George Washington urged legislators to put in place “effectual encouragement” to new and useful innovations. This speech is now known as the first State of the Union address.
On July 31, 1790, the first patent was granted to Samuel Hopkins for improvements in "the making of pot ash and pearl ash.” Potash was used as a fertilizer, a detergent for textile manufacturing, and an ingredient in soap, while the more refined pearl ash was used in glassmaking and baking. The patent was signed by President Washington.
Spotlight: Thomas Jefferson
An inventor himself, Thomas Jefferson was the primary author and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. As President George Washington’s secretary of state, he also served as the leader of the nation’s first Patent Board—the body that held the earliest power to grant or refuse a patent. Some now refer to Jefferson as the "first patent examiner."
1836: A year of challenges and opportunities
On December 15, 1836, a devastating fire tore through the Patent Office, then housed in Blodgett’s Hotel in Washington, D.C. Despite attempts to fight the fire, the Patent Office burned to the ground, taking with it records of the nation’s first 46 years of patents.
The modern Patent Office emerged from the ashes, with changes already underway prior to the fire. The Patent Act of 1836, signed into law on July 4 of that year, had transformed the patenting process, laying the foundation for the system we still use today. The act required the examination of patents and established a corps of professional patent examiners.
Another enduring change introduced in 1836 was the numbering of patents. Patents issued prior to July of that year received retroactive numbers prefixed with the letter “X.” But on the night of December 15, the vast majority of the Patent Office’s records relating to the “X-patents” went up in smoke.
Out of around 10,000 X-patents, only about 2800 were recovered, with the vast majority lost to history. Yet even today, surviving X-patents continue to be found in museums and archives, as well as among family heirlooms. One such example is this patent for an auger used to bore logs to make water pipes, issued to Caleb Leech of Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1797. As was common in the early years of the republic, the patent was signed by President John Adams. Leech later put his invention to good use, improving New York City’s water system as the superintendent of Manhattan Waterworks.
Sid Leech, a descendant of Caleb, submitted this patent to the USPTO after reading about our search for the lost X-patents.
The Temple of Innovation
When the first dedicated Patent Office building opened its doors in 1840, it became not only a government office but one of the premier tourist attractions in Washington, D.C. As the first public exhibit hall in the city, it fulfilled a need as an educational and cultural repository for a growing nation.
In addition to rows and rows of patent models, the building housed a vast museum, where exhibits ranged from boxes of beetle specimens to marble statues from Pompeii to a fragment of Plymouth Rock. Portraits and sculptures of presidents, Founding Fathers, and cabinet secretaries lined the halls. The museum also housed a number of artifacts belonging to George Washington, including a table, a camp chest, and the coat he wore when resigning his military commission.
On a wall between two windows, among the artifacts representing America’s founding, hung the Declaration of Independence. From 1841 until 1876, thousands of curious visitors flocked to the Patent Office to view the landmark proclamation outlining a new nation’s commitment to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Spotlight: Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln is the only U.S. president to be granted a patent. This model for Abraham Lincoln’s method of buoying vessels over shoals was in part whittled by hand by the 16th president.
Federal registration for trademarks
Prior to the 1870s, there was no mechanism in the United States to register trademarks nationally. But increased industrialization and technological advancements such as the transcontinental railroad made mass produced products and interstate commerce more common in the late 1800s. Companies sought to increase consumer confidence and set themselves apart from their competitors. The national trademark system helped brands do exactly this while protecting themselves from copycats.
Following the Trade Mark Act of 1870, Averill Chemical Paint Company received the first federal trademark registration on October 23, 1870.
However, the practice of registering trademarks under the same intellectual property clause as patents was challenged in the courts. Following the Supreme Court's ruling in the Trade-Mark Cases (1879), Congress gave the Patent Office the power to register trademarks under the Constitution's Commerce Clause (article 1, section 8, clause 3).
Trademarks in the United States were further strengthened by the Lanham Act, signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on July 5, 1946. Eighty years later, this act remains the primary federal trademark statute in the United States, guarding against trademark infringement, false advertising, and more. “Trademark” was officially added to the office’s name in 1975.
A golden age of American innovation
As the American people celebrated the centennial of the Declaration of Independence in 1876, the nation entered what many refer to as a golden age of American innovation.
The unique affordability of the patent system at the time encouraged independent inventors to seek out solutions to problems in their industries and communities. And an expanding federal infrastructure led to a growing examiner corps, supported by dozens of clerks, copyists, and other office staff.
The emergence of world’s fairs also gave visitors from across the nation the chance to see the latest inventions for themselves. From May through November of 1876, millions of visitors streamed through the fairgrounds of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, exploring more than 200 structures built to house everything from tropical plants to priceless works of art to the latest mechanical marvels. The admission fee of 50 cents gave fairgoers the opportunity to learn about new inventions like the typewriter, and to experience the then-unfamiliar tastes of bananas, popcorn, and Heinz ketchup. In June, attendees braved a heat wave to see a public demonstration of Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, patented just a few months prior.
America also received its first true look at the Statue of Liberty at the Centennial Exposition. The gargantuan arm and torch attracted daily crowds as part of a fundraising effort to finance the statue’s pedestal. Lady Liberty’s sculptor, Auguste Bartholdi, received two design patents for the appearance of the statue in 1879.
Spotlight: Miriam Benjamin
An educator and civil servant, Miriam Benjamin both practiced patent law and received her own patent for a gong and signal chair in 1888. Her patent model was one of those selected by the Patent Office for display at the Cotton States International Exposition in 1895.