Patent Timeline of Events

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Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

Timeline of Events

1790

7.31.1790

First U.S. patent is issued to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.

1794

3.14.1794

Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.

1809

5.5.1809

Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.

1824

10.21.1824

Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement.

1836

2.25.1836

Samuel Colt is granted an United States patent for the Colt revolver.

1839

2.24.1839

William Otis receives a patent for the steam shovel.

1844

6.15.1844

Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.

1845

3.17.1845

The rubber band is patented.

1873

5.20.1873

Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.

1876

2.14.1876

Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.

3.7.1876

Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the telephone beating Antonio Meucci by four hours.

1884

10.14.1884

The American inventor, George Eastman, receives a U.S. Government patent on his new paper-strip photographic film.

1885

4.3.1885

Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his engine design.

8.14.1885

Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.

1887

6.8.1887

Herman Hollerith applies for US patent #395,791 for the 'Art of Applying Statistics' — his punched card calculator.

1889

1.8.1889

Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the 'Art of Applying Statistics' — his punched card calculator.

1892

8.9.1892

Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.

1894

1.7.1894

W.K. Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.

1895

11.5.1895

George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.

1896

6.2.1896

Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his newest invention: the radio.

1903

3.23.1903

The Wright Brothers apply for a patent on their invention of one of the first successful airplanes.

1910

11.29.1910

The first US patent for inventing the traffic lights system is issued to Ernest E. Sirrine.

1930

11.11.1930

Patent number US1781541 is awarded to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd for their invention, the Einstein refrigerator.

1931

1.6.1931

Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.

1937

2.16.1937

Wallace H. Carothers receives a United States patent for nylon.

1959

2.6.1959

Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.

1960

3.22.1960

Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser.

1961

4.25.1961

Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit.

1970

11.17.1970

Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse.

1973

6.4.1973

A patent for the ATM is granted to Donald Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain.