U.S. patents have issued as printed pages or booklets since 1790. The first U.S. patent issued to Samuel Hopkins and covered an invention for making "pot ash" and "pearl ash."
The U.S.P.T.O. has announced that, beginning next week, it will begin issuing patents as electronic documents. The final batch of printed U.S. patents issued today, April 11, 2023. Congratulations to Zhifeng Ren and Jing Shuia at the University of Houston, recipients of U.S. Patent 11,627,691, which apparently will be the final U.S. patent to issue in paper form. The patent is drawn to "Zintl Compounds with High Thermoelectric Performance and Methods of Manufacture Thereof."
- The U.S. has issued more than 11,627,691 patents, even though that's the highest numbered patent as of today.
- The Patent Office (as it was then known) began issuing patent numbers sequentially on July 11, 1836, when Patent No. 1 was issued to U.S. Senator John Ruggles for “Traction Wheels.” Before that, between 1790 and 1836, the Patent Office issued approximately 10,000 patents, identifying them by date.
- Official records of many of the earliest patents were lost in a fire at the Patent Office in December 1836. The Patent Office recovered many of these early patents, and subsequently assigned these patents retroactive “X” numbers.
- At times the Patent Office used fractional numbers as new patents were recovered, to avoid disruption in the sequence of subsequently numbered patents. For example, there exists a U.S. Patent No. X8736¾. There are also a few patents issued after 1836 that have fractional patent numbers, such as U.S. Patent Nos. 2,712,152½ and 3,262,124½.
- The numbering scheme for utility patents does not count design patents, plant patents, or reissue patents. The USPTO and predecessor agencies have granted almost 1,000,000, design patents, over 30,000 plant patents, and over 48,000 reissue patents. These figures do not include statutory invention registrations.
- Reissue patent No. 1 was granted in 1838, while design patent No. 1 issued in 1842 and plant patent No. 1 in 1930. Some fractional numbers exist in these ranges as well, such as U.S. Patent Nos. D90,793½ and Re1400½.
- Conversely, some patent numbers in the sequence between 1 and 10,000,000 are unused, typically because they represent patents that were withdrawn just prior to issuance. The earliest withdrawn patent number is 100.
- In addition, it seems the U.S.P.T.O. no longer acknowledges certain patents. For example, the U.S.P.T.O. has removed from its website U.S. Patent 3,060,165, titled “Preparation of Toxic Ricin,” issued in 1962 to the U.S. Army.
Something to ponder the next time you're enjoying a zintl compound for breakfast.
