Question from Jim S.:
My 5 year old daughter is always coming up with fabulous ideas for inventions. How old was the youngest person to receive a patent?
The youngest person to be granted a patent is Sydney Dittman, a four-year-old girl from Houston, Texas, for an aid for grasping round knobs. She was granted Patent 5,231,733 on August 3, 1993.
View the patent at the USPTO.
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“Anyone can become an inventor as long as they keep an open and inquiring mind and never overlook the possible significance of an accident or apparent failure.”
– Patsy Sherman
In 1953, two 3M scientists attempted to develop a new type of rubber for use in jet aircraft fuel lines.
Instead, they stumbled upon a substance that put heinous plastic seat covers to shame.
That’s right: Scotchgard is yet another revolutionary product that was invented completely by mistake.
It happened one fine day as Patsy Sherman and Sam Smith toiled away on their experimental compound. As the story goes, a lab assistant dropped a bottle of the substance all over her lab shoes and quickly became annoyed that she couldn’t clean it off with soap, alcohol or any solvent. Continue reading “Famous Women Inventors: Patsy Sherman – Inventor of Scotchgard”
Question from Dave L.:
What was the involvement of Matti Makkonen in the invention of text messaging? Is text messaging patented?
As a system designer for the telecom and post authority in Finland, Matti Makkonen was involved in developing mobile communications systems. The idea for text messaging began with Makkonen and two other Finish engineers in a pizzeria in Copenhagen in the summer of 1982. Patenting the idea never occurred to Makkonen and ultimately he was not paid a cent for his work.
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Can you imagine life without tape? How would we wrap presents, fix ripped papers and make duct tape dresses? Richard Drew invented the first masking tape in 1925.
Richard Drew was an engineer working at 3M when he perfected the masking tape. At the time, 3M was a sandpaper manufacturer. Drew was delivering trial batches of sandpaper to a local auto shop when he learned how difficult it was to do the two-tone paint jobs that were very popular in cars during the 1920s. Painting a perfect border between the two colors was nearly impossible. When removing the butcher paper on the cars, some of the painted that was just applied would peel off. Touching up the damaged paint increased the time and cost of the paint job.
Drew worked for two years in the lab at 3M to invent the first masking tape which was a two-inch wide tan paper strip backed with light adhesive. It was originally made from cabinetmaker’s glue and treated crepe paper. The first run only had adhesive on the sides and not the middle. Continue reading “More Adhesive! The Invention of Scotch Tape”
Question from Bob S.:
What patent has the longest title? Shortest title?
Patent #6,186,793 has the longest title with 42 words and 250 characters. The title is: Process to convert cost and location of a number of actual contingent events within a region into a three dimensional surface over a map that provides for every location within the region its own estimate of expected cost for future contingent events.
The shortest title belongs to Patent #2,053,882 with 1 word and 2 characters: Ax.
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Patent disputes do not just occur over drugs or electronics. In fact, even the pencil, a simple product used by millions everyday, was at one time part of a court battle.
The first patent for attaching an eraser to a pencil was issued in 1858 to a man from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hyman Lipman received patent number 19,783 on March 30, 1858 for a Combination of Lead-Pencil and Eraser. Lipman sold his patent to Joseph Reckendorfer in 1862 for one hundred thousand dollars. On November 4, 1862, Reckendorfer received patent 36,854 for an improvement in pencils. Continue reading “Pencil Patent Dispute?”
Question from John L.:
I know you talked about the longest patent application ever filed. What about the shortest?
With about 480,000 applications filed each year with the USPTO, it is difficult to nail down what is the shortest application. The shortest application I have ever seen is also one of the most interesting. Application 20040005535 filed on January 8, 2004 for a Process of reincarnation has only 13 words in its abstract, one claim and no drawing. You can view this application in the USPTO database.
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In 1930, the Plant Patent Act spurred by the work of Luther Burbank provided for the possibility of patent protection for asexually reproduced plants. In 1949, Plant Patent #1 was issued to Henry Bosenberg of New Brunswick, NJ, for a climbing rose. The United States Patent and Trademark Office grants a plant patent for any new or distinct variety of plant that is asexually reproduced except for a tuber propagated plant or a plant found in an uncultivated state. Asexual reproduction means that the plant must be able to reproduce by a method other than seeds such as budding, grafting or the rooting of the cuttings. The child plant therefore has the exact characteristics of the parent plant. Continue reading “What Is A Plant Patent?”
Question from James M.:
How many patent applications are filed with United States Patent and Trademark Office each year? Of these applications, how many patents are granted?
In 2009, 482,871 patent applications were filed with United States Patent and Trademark Office. A total of 485,312 patent applications were filed with the USPTO in the year 2008.
In 2009, 191,927 patents were granted. 185,224 patents were granted in 2008.
To see a complete history of patents granted since 1963, visit the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
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August is National Inventors Month. The United Inventors Association of the USA, the Academy of Applied Science, and Inventor’s Digest Magazine started this celebration in 1998. The purpose of this month is to celebrate creativity and innovation. Some of the most imaginative patents granted have not been for products that most would consider practical but they all celebrate the spirit of invention. From the Electrified Table Cloth to Inflatable Rug, these are some of the most interesting and possibly useless patents granted.
Patent #3,984,595 was issued October 5, 1976 for an Inflatable Rug.
A rug which is convertible to an air mattress includes a rug member adhesively laminated on top of a flexible-walled backing member composed of a pair of stacked sheets sealably joined around their margins. Continue reading “August is National Inventors Month”