Patent becomes America’s 10 millionth invention

The United States issued its 10 millionth patent today. In a statement, the White House announced, “The inventor is Joseph Marron, a Raytheon employee who resides in Manhattan Beach, Calif.  The patent is for a coherent ladar system using intra-pixel quadrature detection, which is a type of laser-based object detection used in numerous industries including autonomous vehicles, medical imaging, space and undersea exploration.”

President Trump signed the historic document.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office in statement said of the 10 millionth patent “This milestone of human ingenuity perhaps exceeds even the Founding Fathers’ expectations when they called for a patent system in the Constitution to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.” Follow the timeline below for important moments, notable inventors, changing patent designs, and other interesting facts over more than two centuries of innovation in America.

On their website they stated, “It is a timely and relevant opportunity to promote the importance of innovation, the ubiquity of intellectual property, and the history of America’s patent system

The U.S. is a world leader in innovation Strong IP systems foster innovation, which in turn drives economic success. Ten million patents worth of innovation and invention represents trillions of dollars added to our global economy.

The rates of innovation and invention continue to accelerate. It took 121 years to issue the first million patents (1790-1911), but just four years to move from patent 8 million to patent 9 million (2011-2015) and three years to move from patent 9 million to patent 10 million.

To commemorate the issuance of patent 10 million, the USPTO unveiled a new patent cover design during a special ceremony at South by Southwest (SXSW) on March 11, 2018. The new design will debut with patent 10 million.

On April 10, 1790, President George Washington signed the Patent Act of 1790 that laid the foundation of the modern American patent system to acknowledge an invention.

The United States has recognized the importance of granting limited monopolies for new inventions since the adoption of our Constitution in 1789. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 charges Congress “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.”

Dr William Thornton, architect of the U.S. Capitol Building, was the first leader of the U S Patent Office. In 1814 Thornton convinced British soldiers to spare the Patent Office during the burning of Washington, DC.

The United States, a country of 350 million people, issues the most patents each year. It is followed by Israel with only 8 million people which issues more than China, Japan and other tech savvy nations.

–By Dwight Widaman

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