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Thread: US Patents

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
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    Country: UK

    Default US Patents

    This forum, US Patents, is for you to post/download and discus American Patents. The forum automatically organizes new threads based on the year followed by patent number so the format for the Title field when adding a patent specification should be: YYYY - patent number. The system then places your post in the correct sequential numerical order by date/patent number. Don't worry if there is a typo, I will keep an eye on new additions and correct any typos in the Title field. Members can also post/add discussions and comments to the relevant thread patent number. As the number of patents grow you can quickly find what you are looking for, such as year, patent number, patentee etc., in the Search feature in the header located top of every page.

    Also general information about the American patent system should also be posted in this thread.

  2. #2

    Default The Patent Office and its Fires

    The Patent Office and its Fires

    The Patent Office was established in 1790 by order of George Washington. Early patents were identified by title and date of issue. A miniature working model of the device was required to be submitted. Many of the early patent certificates were signed by George Washington or Thomas Jefferson.

    On December 15, 1836, a fire destroyed all (estimate: 9,957) patents, as well as 9,000 drawings and 7,000 models, and the file histories of thousands of patents and pending applications. These were in temporary storage while a “fireproof” Patent Office building was being built. A fire station was nearby, but the leather hoses were frozen and cracked, and the pump didn’t work. The “fireproof” building was completed in 1864.

    Congress acted to restore those records that could be reconstructed from private files, and to reproduce models. Patents whose records were not restored were canceled. 2,845 patents were restored. Of these, 1,989 are available online. These were given (new) numbers suffixed with “X.” To keep these in chronological order, some have fractional numbers, such as “2863¼X.”

    On September 27, 1877, there was another disastrous fire. 80,000 models and 600,000 drawings were destroyed, but no patents were completely lost.

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