Essay - Patents the United States Patent System is Almost as Old...

Patents

***** United States Patent system is almost as old as the nation: President George Washington signed the bill leading to its creation on April 10, 1790. It was the first time in history that the right of an inventor to pr*****it from his 'intellectual property' had been recognized by law. Until that time, in Europe at least and in the colonies, *****s merely had privileges regarding their inventions, ***** that could be withdrawn at the monarch's whim. Occasionally, special acts of a legislature would grant some rights,also, but the process ***** hardly be called as system, and w***** capricious and applied unequally at best.

Article I, Section 8 ***** the U.S. Constitution is the specific law that allowed the U.S. government to claim ***** powers of granting patents and actually included in its language the concept of copyright which would, over time, become a separate issue covered ***** a separate body of law, the copyright *****s. Article I, ***** 8 reads:

Congress shall have the power...to promote ***** progress of science ***** useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.

***** first person to review a proposal before ***** a patent was Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State and an inventor in ***** own right. In 1790, Jefferson reviewed the application of Samuel Hopk*****s of Pittsford, Vermont, for a new process ***** making potash, used to make soap *****d derived from ash of burned botanicals. When ***** had finished his review, he passed the application to the Secretary of War ***** review, and then obtained signatures fro the Attorney General and from President W*****ington.

It turned out that Americans were very inventive. By 1791, Jefferson ***** realized that, as a Cabinet member, he did not have time to study the flood of applications coming in; by 1793, the duties had been transferred ***** a State Department clerk, keeping *****m still under the purview of ***** ***** ***** State. It remained ***** way until the Patent Office was formed in 1802. "In 1849 the Patent Office became a part of the Department of the Interior; it was transferred ***** executive order ***** the president to ***** Department of Commerce in 1925. On January 2, 1975, the name ***** changed to Patent and Trademark Office." More than five million U.S. patents have been issued to U.S. citizens and other nationals.

Some of the same issues that bedeviled Jefferson are ***** problematical for the U.S. Patent Office. In early 2004, the National Academies released a report outlining ch*****nges needed to improve the U.S. patent system.

The first recommendation was that the ***** ***** more flexibility, openness ***** reliability to continue ***** lead in the world patent arena, and the first answer to this need ***** *****creased funding ***** both expanding ***** workforce and for technological improvements (National Academies Web site 2004). On the o*****r h*****, despite the recent addition of new kinds of computer-originated 'intangible' intellectual property to ***** workload, the