American Patent System

History of American Patent System

The first president of the United States of America signed the bill which implemented the modern American Patent System. The intrinsic patent right of the inventor to gain from what he invented is put into law. In the past, it was the discretion of a monarch or a special act of legislature to grant this benefit to the inventor. The first grantee of such benefit was Samuel Hopkins who developed Potash derived from ash of burnt plant life used to make soap and other items.


Thomas Jefferson was the reviewer of this patent, Secretary of State; inventor of gadgets then passes them to the Secretary of war for his review and then signed by the attorney general and the final signature for the President Washington. The first year saw two more applications for patents which were later granted after due deliberation and examination, collection of signatures and implementation. Jefferson later realized that there is just too much work being done for the process of patent application. The very busy cabinet members’ time were just eaten up by the laborious process of deliberation for as little as four dollars. An American inventor could apply for a patent protection for their inventions for this amount under the provisions act of 1970.

The First American Patent Born

The Secretary of State was overwhelmed by the number of American inventors seeking to have their patents approved; so in 1793, the overwhelming work of patent examination was handed over to a State Department Clerk until the formation of the Patent office in 1802. As of today, more than five million patents were issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office to Americans and other nationals.


Before the Patent Act of July 4, 1836 was implemented, names and dates were issued to identify patents instead of numbers. Almost 10,000 patents were already in force by the Patent Office when it was caught on fire and destroyed a lot of original patent applications and their original documentations last December 1836. Utilizing private records, the office staff managed to restore and recover 2,845 patents. The remaining patents were then issued a number beginning with an X consequentially called the X-Patents. Henceforth, the first patent was assigned the patent X1. The non-recovered patents were canceled.