WEBVTT - The Origins of the US Patent Office 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.400 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Okay, hey there, 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:15.840 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:20.200 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and how the tech 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:24.320 are you now? Before I get started on today's episode, 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.680 which is a part one of a two parter, I 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:30.040 wanted to let y'all know that I'm going to be 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:35.360 at this year's iHeartRadio Music Festival House of Music. I'll 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:39.680 be recording live in the iHeart Podcasts studio that's powered 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:44.720 by Bose. So come by on Friday this Friday at 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:47.640 six pm to the free House of Music outside T 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:50.880 Mobile Arena. I'll see you there and you'll be able 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:54.720 to hear the episode I record at the House of 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:59.680 Music at the iHeart podcast Studio powered by Bose on Monday. 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:04.400 That episode should come out Monday and will be about 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:08.560 something really pertinent. Anyway. The House of Music, in case 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:11.480 you're curious, it's this big interactive exhibit where you can 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:16.800 experience immersive mixed reality. These experiences linked to the various 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:20.000 artists who are performing at this year's festival, and there's 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:24.720 a let me tell you, a wide spectrum of experiences 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:28.959 like something for everybody. There's a room that's dedicated to 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:32.800 Public Enemy, There's another one dedicated to Fallout Boy, There's 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:36.479 one dedicated to Kelly Clarkson. Like I said, it's a 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:41.480 pretty wide range of experiences, and they're more. Besides that, 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:43.560 those are just three of the ones that will be 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:46.759 part of this House of Music experience. Now, as part 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:48.760 of that, we have, like I said, this Bose powered 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:53.240 podcast studio. And I know what you're thinking, Yes, this 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.320 whole thing is way cooler than I am, but they 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.240 still asked me to come, so I'm gonna go there. 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:02.520 I hope to see some of y'all there. All right, 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:06.400 now let's get to the episodes. So, since I am 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:08.800 going to be traveling out to Las Vegas this week 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.760 and it's going to really disrupt my normal recording schedule, 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.400 I decided to get a jump on things and I 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:19.560 wrote out a two part episode for y'all. So Part 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:24.200 one is today, Part two will be tomorrow. Then on Friday, 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:29.520 I'll be recording live in Vegas, and then next week 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:33.480 should be I guess, kind of normal. I'm actually still 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:35.920 going to be in Vegas for a separate thing with 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:39.040 Mobile World Congress, but we'll see how normal I can 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:42.560 make it. I'm bringing my recording equipment with me. I'll 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:45.960 just be recording, probably in my hotel room, but someplace 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.560 that's relatively quiet, is my hope. Okay, now, I have 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:54.080 done a few episodes about patents on this show. Today, 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:56.840 I thought I would talk about the history of the 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:00.880 patent office here in the United States and also talk 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:05.920 about how one massive fire prompted changes that meant a second, 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:12.800 technically more costly fire was ultimately far less destructive. But 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:14.880 that's definitely getting ahead of myself, because I won't even 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.080 be touching the fires at all, because fire is hot, 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:22.320 but I won't be talking about them until tomorrow. However, first, 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:25.600 before we get into any history stuff, let's go over 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:29.800 why patents exist in the first place. So the purpose 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:33.840 of a patent is to grant limited but exclusive rights 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:37.760 to an inventor of their invention. And when I say inventor, 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:41.960 I don't always mean inventor, I mean patent holder, because 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:46.040 the entity that holds a patent might not have been 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:51.160 actually responsible for the invention, but through whatever arrangement between 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:55.000 inventor and entity there is, it means that the entity 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:59.000 holds that patent and they have this limited but exclusive 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:03.360 set of rights. So the concept here is that the 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:07.080 inventor comes up with either a significant improvement over an 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:10.680 existing thing, or they come up with something that is 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:16.279 totally new altogether. The inventor then details what this invention 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.200 does and how it works in a document in a 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:23.240 set of specifications, ideally so that a person who was 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:25.960 reading it would have a reasonable idea of how it 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:31.200 functions and potentially could even follow steps to create a 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:34.160 version of their own in the future. So the patent 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.920 means that the patent holder can choose what to do 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:40.599 with that invention, and no one else has that right, 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:42.880 at least for as long as the patent is valid. 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.240 Patents do eventually expire, so that's why I say there's 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:50.320 a limited exclusive rights granted to the patent holder, because 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:55.080 eventually they do expire. The patent holder can choose to 0:04:55.400 --> 0:05:00.440 make their own invention themselves, so they could start reducing 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:03.600 whatever it was they invented, and they could also pursue 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:08.040 legal action against anyone who copies them. They could argue 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:11.039 for patent infringement. So if someone were to try and 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:13.640 make their own version and it appeared to be based 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.200 off the same functions and operations that were covered by 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:19.440 the patent. The patent holder could say, I hold the 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:22.159 exclusive patent for this. I didn't give you permission to 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:26.279 use this invention. You owe me money. And assuming that 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:29.039 the argument is a sound one, and the court finds 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:33.279 that yes, the copy or whatever was in fact based 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:37.920 upon the exact same principles as the patented invention, then 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:41.520 the court is more likely to side with the plaintiff 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:45.160 in that case. So the inventor or patent holder could 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:50.200 also license their invention to other entities, like a manufacturing company. 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:54.640 So in this case, the company or whatever pays a 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:59.080 license fee to the patent holder, and then that company 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:01.520 starts to make the thing and sells it themselves, and 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.480 the patent holder just sits back and collects licensing fees 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.239 and doesn't have to actually pour the capital into making 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:13.159 the thing themselves. If the patent holder is a real jerk, 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:17.479 they can get a patent on something and then just 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.160 sit on it and just wait to see. If anyone 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:24.080 ever makes anything that could be said to infringe upon 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:28.280 their patents, then the patent holder could sue or threaten 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:32.160 to sue that other person or entity and look for 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.960 like a really big settlement or court decision. This kind 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.440 of patent holder is what we call a patent troll. 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:43.280 Patent trolls don't make anything. They typically don't license their 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.200 patents either, so they just sit on them. They patent 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.560 something and they wait and then they pounce if they 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:54.680 see anyone that makes something that they could argue was 0:06:54.760 --> 0:07:00.000 predicated upon their patents. It's pretty awful, and obviously it's 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.919 a way of behaving that's antithetical to the purpose of 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:07.840 a patent. Patents weren't made so that you could set 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.680 a trap and wait and then pounce on someone when 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.960 they appear to trip the trap. They were made to 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:21.440 encourage innovation and invention. Now, because patents are available for 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:24.120 public review, you can go and look at all these 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.880 patents that are filed to this day. You can search 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:30.679 various databases for all the patents that have been filed 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:34.080 that still exist. We'll talk more about that in tomorrow's episode. 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:39.040 But this also means that the inventor or patent holder 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:43.600 can't keep their invention to themselves forever. Ideally, someone with 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:45.600 the materials and skill would be able to take those 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.680 specifications that were laid out in a patent along with 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:52.400 whatever sketches might be included and build their own version 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.800 of that invention. They can't do that without the inventor's 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:59.000 permission until the patent expires, but at that point it 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:02.680 enters public domain and it's fair gain. So the thinking 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:07.040 behind this is that really useful inventions shouldn't be locked 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:11.080 away from the public in perpetuity. They should be available 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:15.120 for people to make use of beyond a certain span 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:17.720 of years. So a patent is meant to grant a 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:21.400 reasonable amount of time to the patent holder in order 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:25.080 for them to make money off of their invention. Chances are, 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:29.080 by the time the patent expires, advancements will mean that 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:33.760 the original invention isn't necessarily relevant anymore anyway. But with 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.280 the patent going into the public domain, people are free 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:39.320 to build upon that design and to improve upon it 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:42.679 and to evolve it. So a patent is a balance 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:45.880 between providing for the benefit of the inventor or patent 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:51.040 holder and ensuring the public good in the long term. Now, 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.320 there are criteria that an invention has to meet in 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:58.240 order to be patentable. For one thing, it needs to 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:01.200 have a useful purpose, so that could be a fairly 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:05.600 subjective criterion. It needs to be new. If there are 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:07.959 already versions of this invention out there in the world, 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:11.000 well then it's not eligible for a patent. We've seen 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:15.400 this recently with lots of things where where people have argued, hey, 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:20.320 there were already versions of that technology that existed prior 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.199 to your patent application, so you shouldn't be able to 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:26.959 receive a patent for that because it's not new. Something 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:29.560 else already exists that does the thing you're doing. It's 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.560 also supposed to be non obvious, so that means it 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:34.440 needs to be inventive. It needs to be something that 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:38.480 not just anybody would say, oh this is bad design. 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.000 Let's just change this one thing and now it works better. 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:45.160 So it can't be an obvious improvement. It has to 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:49.200 be something that was special. If the average person could 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:51.320 have invented it, then it doesn't qualify for a patent. 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:55.960 It also has to cover patentable subject matter, and this 0:09:56.280 --> 0:10:00.360 gets a little more complicated. So, for example, you couldn't 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:03.400 patent something that occurs in nature like a flower, assuming 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.680 of course that the flower already exists in nature, and 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:09.880 that makes sense. Now the flower is not of human design. 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:12.960 It's not a flower that's of human origin. But if 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:16.040 you were able to create, say a new kind of flower, 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.880 and it reproduces asexually and it's not found in nature, 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.960 that is something that is patentable. You can also patent 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.880 a process. In fact, you can patent really kind of 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:31.560 abstract processes if they have like a concrete outcome. So 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:34.040 if you came up with a new way to conduct business, 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:36.920 you could conceivably file and receive a patent for that. 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.640 And you can patent formula for stuff like drugs or 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:44.720 other chemicals. Those kind of things can be patented, but 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:50.840 mathematical formula cannot be patented. Neither can scientific principles. Those 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.679 cannot be patented. That mathematics bit ended up being a 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:58.120 real hang up when people started writing software because they 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.720 wanted to patent their software. But there were a lot 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:05.640 of debates over whether a program would be patentable because 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:09.079 when you really get down to brass tacks, programs are 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:13.240 just a set of mathematical operations, and mathematical operations and 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:17.160 formulas are not patentable. Back in the nineteen sixties and 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:20.440 nineteen seventies, the Patent and Trademark Office was reluctant to 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.880 issue a patent for any invention that included calculations made 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:27.440 by a computer. The Supreme Court in the United States 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:29.559 backed up the Patent Office in a couple of major 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:33.880 decisions during those decades. Things started to change a little bit. 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:36.400 In the nineteen eighties, however, the Supreme Court ruled that 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:41.439 one process that did include software was in fact patentable. 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:44.160 But this was a process that had a lot of 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:47.560 different elements in it. If you're curious, it was really 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:50.360 about heating rubber to the proper temperature in order to 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:54.240 cure the rubber, and software was one part of it, 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.240 but not the only part. So this wasn't exactly a 0:11:57.240 --> 0:11:59.880 clear cut case saying yes, software is patentable. It was 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:02.920 more like the software was part of a larger process 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:06.600 and the overall process was patentable. Today, obtaining a patent 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:09.520 on software is still a little dodgy, and it can 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:12.440 really gum up the court systems in the US. But 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:15.080 that's a matter for another episode. So let's talk about 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:18.160 some other stuff that you cannot patent. You can't patent 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:22.320 surgical procedures. You can't patent a dance or an exercise, 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:26.679 though you could patent exercise equipment or dance equipment. You 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:30.400 can't patent an invention that violates the laws of physics, 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.440 so that means stuff like perpetual motion machines are not 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:36.880 eligible for patents, even though that hasn't always stopped inventors 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.079 from trying to patent it, and it hasn't always stopped 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:42.840 the Patent Office from making a whoopsie, at least in 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:46.760 the short term. Well, we're going to talk more about 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.600 the actual history of patents in just a moment, but 0:12:49.640 --> 0:13:02.160 first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsors. Okay, 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:04.560 we're back. So the history of patents in the United 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:08.120 States involves one of the founding fathers of the country, 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:11.840 one of our early presidents, in fact, Thomas Jefferson, so 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:14.600 old Tommy Boy, spent a great deal of time in 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:18.800 Europe securing support as the colonies that would become the 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:22.280 United States were attempting to establish a new nation, and 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:24.920 one of the many things he picked up well over 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:28.839 in Europe was this concept of patents, and he felt 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:31.520 that the United States would need its own way to 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:37.720 protect ideas and inventions and innovation and experimentation. So he thought, 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:40.720 this is something we need to establish in our new country. 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:45.080 So in seventeen ninety, as Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:49.600 supported a bill that would establish that the Secretary of State, 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:52.880 the Secretary of War, and the Attorney General would serve 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:55.280 as a tribunal and they would have the power to 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:59.400 grant or deny patents. Even in the earliest version of 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:02.400 this law, the government required that inventions pass a standard 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:06.960 of being quote sufficiently useful and important end quote. If 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.280 your invention didn't measure up to that standard, you were 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:12.560 not going to get a patent for it. In fact, 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:16.360 the tribunal was so strict that for the first year 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:19.240 that patent law was even a thing in the United States, 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:24.120 they granted only three patents. The very first one was 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:27.840 for a process of making potash, which is used in fertilizer. 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:32.000 George Washington gave that patent his John Hancock, which just 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.720 wanted to say, because I'm lame and I think I'm funny. 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:38.480 At this time, there was no numbering system for patents. 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:42.680 So while Georgie Boyce signed the first patent into the US, 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:45.920 that's not to say that podash patent was patent number one, 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:51.400 because we didn't start numbering patents for like four more decades, 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:54.200 and I imagine the filing system back in those days 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:57.360 was a nightmare. In fact, I know it was because 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.560 some of the leaders of the Patent Office went bonkers 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:04.320 trying to fix it. Now, the original term of protection 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:08.120 for a patent was fourteen years, and after fourteen years, 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:10.320 the patent design would go into the public domain and 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:12.520 anyone would be able to make use of that invention 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:17.480 without committing patent infringement. This clause kept inventors from being 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:20.280 able to hoard their own work, which Jefferson and others 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:22.760 saw as a way of protecting the public so that 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:26.440 the most people could benefit from inventions while the inventor 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:29.320 would still enjoy a fairly long span of time as 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:32.280 the exclusive rights holder, thought, being like, oh, yeah, you're 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.240 going to be able to get rich in fourteen years, 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:39.640 and after that then you know you had your time, 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:44.160 and that invention needs to be sort of freed up 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:47.160 so that more people can take advantage of it. The 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:50.120 early version of this law also laid out that patent 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:55.640 applications should include detailed drawings and, if possible, a model 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.720 to demonstrate the working components. The model part would be 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:04.480 really important for nearly a century, and this would help 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:08.360 determine if the invention described was even possible, if it 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:12.320 would even work, and to understand the underlying working elements 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:17.160 of that invention. If your model was such that you 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:20.720 could not see how this invention could possibly work when 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:24.560 built at scale, that was a bad sign. So the 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:27.160 model needed to be able to convey, yes, this is 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:31.360 an idea that will work in the real world. One 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:33.520 of the big issues with these models is that they 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.200 took up a lot of space, right like, you had 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:38.560 to find a place to put them and store them 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:42.960 and preserve them, and that would become a huge challenge 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:47.400 later on as more patent applications would pour in. Now, 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:50.840 if you were an inventor, you could choose not to 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:52.800 pursue a patent at all if you wanted to. You 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:56.280 could just try and keep your design a secret. You 0:16:56.320 --> 0:17:00.680 could choose to not share drawings or models your invention, 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.520 and maybe you make the thing and sell the thing, 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:07.320 and you never bother to explain how the thing works 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:09.800 to anyone else. So you might want to do that 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:15.600 rather than describe and detail how your invention works, because 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.159 that way you would be the one making all the 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:22.119 decisions about your invention forever, or at least for as 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.879 long as you're alive. However, if someone else were able 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:29.480 to figure out how your invention works, then they could 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:32.400 go and make their own version without going through you. 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.640 And if you don't have a patent protecting your invention, 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:39.360 you don't really have a lot of recourse. If your 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:42.720 competitor is better at marketing and selling your invention than 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:45.760 you are, you could find yourself at a major disadvantage. 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.400 So while filing a patent requires you to explain how 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:52.320 the heck your thing works, the protections you get from 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:56.840 a patent can outweigh any concern about giving up your secrets, 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.160 unless it's a trade secret you really want to protected. 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:06.080 So yeah, that's another alternative to getting a patent, just 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:10.080 not necessarily a wise one, depending upon what your invention is. Anyway, 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:12.439 back to the history of patents in the US, so 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:18.439 early inventors were starting to complain about the patent system 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:22.480 that Jefferson had kind of overseen, and there's not really 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:25.240 a big surprise there. When you have only three patent 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:27.400 applications that make it all the way through to become 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:31.520 patents in a full year, you might start to say 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:35.560 the system is not working as intended. So some inventors 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:39.399 complained that the people who are occupying the positions that 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:43.840 were responsible for reviewing the patents were inherently biased against 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:48.040 the industrial class, and there may have been some truth 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:50.800 to that. The political leadership of the US largely came 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:57.080 from more aristocratic lines, sometimes agrarian ones, Thomas Jefferson, for example. 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.440 So we got a couple of revisions to pass law 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:04.080 in the following years that changed things around in a 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:08.119 major way. So in seventeen ninety three, just three years 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:11.240 in to this grand experiment of four technically if you 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:16.199 count like seventeen ninety one, ninety two and then ninety three, 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:19.040 a big change happened. And that change was that it 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:24.800 removed the tribunal's right to review applications and then reject 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:27.680 them on the basis of lack of merit, so kind 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:30.840 of like a drastic opposite of how things had been 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.399 going up to that point. So essentially, the thought was 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:38.119 that the Patent office should just grant patents regardless of 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:42.679 whether the application demonstrated a useful or new invention or not. 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:46.919 If they pays their money, they gets their patents. That 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:50.280 was the thinking that would mean that the US court 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:54.119 system would be responsible for hashing out all the different 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:57.760 legal cases that involve problems with this approach. Remember, if 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:01.600 if you're not able to review an reject a patent application, 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:04.800 and someone patents an invention and then someone else tries 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:08.439 to patent the same invention, you can't reject it. That 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:11.040 means you grant a patent for both inventions, even though 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:16.280 one clearly predated another, which kind of brings the whole 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:20.360 question about who has those patent rights under fire right, 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.359 And these are things that would end up going to courts, 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:25.199 and then the courts would have to decide all this. 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:28.159 So it was kind of passing the buck of this 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:31.840 responsibility off to the court system. Not that the tribunal 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:35.399 necessarily wanted this, but this is how the law was changed. 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:39.199 So if you filed a patent for something simple that 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:41.600 had already been around for ages, like you didn't actually 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:43.760 invent something you just decided to file a patent for, 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:47.439 like I don't know, a shovel, then technically, if you 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:50.600 paid your application fee, then you would get your patent 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:54.280 approved and you could theoretically use your patent to go 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:56.679 after anyone who made a shovel that didn't pay you. 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:00.280 Chances are that wouldn't really go very far in court, 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:04.240 Like it wouldn't be a successful kind of tactic, but 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:06.520 it would take up a lot of time, It would 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:09.920 waste time, and it would be a real nuisance. And 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:13.160 so yeah, this was a big change. Now, another set 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:16.000 of revisions stated that only a US citizen would be 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.840 able to receive a US patent. That rule would also 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:23.200 evolve over time. You would have exceptions or some language 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:24.960 that would change this a bit, like if someone had 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:28.240 been in the country for at least two years and 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:31.560 expressed a desire to become a US citizen, then they 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:33.960 would be eligible for a patent. Then you know, this 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:37.000 would change again. So this was an evolving concept. But 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:40.560 there was a time where if you wanted to get 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:44.520 a US patent you had to be a US citizen. 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:48.199 Interesting because again, the United States had not existed for 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:52.080 very long at all at this point. From seventeen ninety 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.560 to eighteen oh two, there was a solitary clerk in 0:21:55.600 --> 0:22:00.360 the state department who oversaw operations because rapidly this whole 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:04.840 tribunal approach essentially said, let's just make one person in 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:07.720 charge of this and not have to take up department 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:11.280 time with the leaders of three different departments coming together 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:14.320 to make these decisions. So it became a clerk in 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:16.480 the State Department who had to do it, and that 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:19.800 was rough. So once you get to eighteen oh two, 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:26.640 Jefferson then appoints a physician named doctor William Thornton as 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:30.720 the Superintendent of the Patent Office, a position he would 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:34.840 hold for twenty six years, and to this day, doctor 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:38.440 Thornton stands out as the person who served as leader 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:43.280 of the Patent Office for the longest tenure. Doctor Thornton 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:47.480 was a highly educated man. He was born in the 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:51.359 British Virgin Islands in seventeen fifty nine. He was sent 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:56.879 to attend school in England. He ended up attending the 0:22:57.000 --> 0:23:01.880 University of Aberdeen and earned a medical degree. And interestingly, 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:05.080 when he returned to the United States, he participated in 0:23:05.119 --> 0:23:09.720 a little competition. There was a competition to submit designs 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:13.280 for what the US Capitol building should look like, so 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:17.440 he created one and he won the competition. He would 0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:20.120 actually go on to design other buildings that would become 0:23:20.160 --> 0:23:23.040 famous landmarks in Washington, d C. Not all of which 0:23:23.480 --> 0:23:26.119 would survive. Due to something that's going to happen in 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:29.040 just a few years. But yeah, he did this without 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:33.160 any formal training in architecture. He was just really interested 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:37.680 in it and submitted his designs and won. Anyway, he 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:42.439 assumed the role of Patent Office Superintendent on June first, 0:23:42.520 --> 0:23:46.560 eighteen oh two, becoming the first superintendent of the United 0:23:46.560 --> 0:23:50.680 States Patent Office. Now, originally the title was more or 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:56.840 less informal. There was like no official law that really 0:23:56.960 --> 0:24:01.480 established the office. In fact, he wasn't allowed to hire 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:06.359 an assistant until eighteen ten, which meant he had to 0:24:06.400 --> 0:24:08.800 oversee all the work of the office personally. It was 0:24:08.840 --> 0:24:12.040 an office consisting of one person, and that was the superintendent. 0:24:12.320 --> 0:24:15.320 I think that's hilarious that you could be a superintendent 0:24:15.400 --> 0:24:20.439 and have no one to superintend I guess. Anyway, that 0:24:20.600 --> 0:24:23.680 year eighteen ten would also see the US government purchase 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:27.919 a building that was called Blodgett's Hotel. So it was 0:24:27.920 --> 0:24:30.320 a building that was meant to be, you know, the 0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:34.840 sort of luxurious hotel. But from what I understand, apparently 0:24:34.880 --> 0:24:37.440 the money to build the hotel kind of ran out 0:24:38.040 --> 0:24:41.679 mid construction or toward the end of construction, and so 0:24:41.880 --> 0:24:46.520