It’s Friday Fun Facts: July 31
U.S. Patent
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” Since then, over 10 million patents have been issued.”
Charles H. Duell, Commissioner of the US patent office in 1899.
- Patents are grants of property to an inventor.
- Patents are effective for 20 years.
- No one really knows who invented the fire hydrant, because its patent perished in a fire.
- Abraham Lincoln is the only President to have been issued a U.S. Patent.
- The movie industry is based in Hollywood on the west coast because movie makers were trying to get away from Thomas Edison (based in New Jersey). He had patents covering virtually all the movie-making process and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California was known to rule against patent claims.
- In 1955, Jonas Salk chose not to patent his polio vaccine for the sake of humanity. If he would have patented it he would have earned an estimated $7 billion.
- Ben Franklin refused to patent any of his inventions, saying: “as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours and this we should do freely and generously.”
- WD-40 is not patent-protected, thereby avoiding completely disclosing its ingredients, making it harder for any other companies to mimic.
Did Hillside receive a patent?
Hillside tried to patent our customer service process. However, business procedures can’t be patented.
Oh well…we’ll continue to “Keep you warm in the winter and cool in the summer while doing customer service right.”
If anyone wants to copy us, it’s better for humanity.
