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X-Patent |
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The rights allowed to an inventor by the state for his invention for a stipulated time interval is known as patent. The patents that were allowed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office ( USPTO) in between July of 1790 and July 1836 is called X-Patent.
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United States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office is an organization of department of Commerce in United States that grants patents to the individual for their inventions and new business ventures. At present the office of USPTO is situated in Alexandria of Virginia. Earlier the office was situated in Crystal City of Arlington, Virginia from where the office was shifted in the year 1991.
The organization is presently under the supervision of Jon W. Dudas, the Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property who was appointed by the U.S. President George W. Bush in the year 2004. The USPTO acts in cooperation with European Patent Office and Japan Patent Office. The actual number of patents granted during this time interval is still unknown. However an estimate of 9,957 has been made.
X-Patents were those patents that were destroyed by fire in the year 1836 while they were kept in a storage temporarily. The patents were completely lost since the government did not keep any copies of those patents and only the copies of the inventors were availble.
The fire of 1836
The incident took plece on 15th December, 1836. The patents filed were at that time kept in a storage for a certain time interval. A fireproof buiding was under construction when the storage was completely ruined by fire. Though there was a firestation in the nearby locality yet least could be done since all the pipes were frozen and little could be done by the firemen.
Recovery of X-Patents
A law was passed after the incident in order to recover and reissue the patents that were destroyed by the fire. The United States Congress could manage to discover only 2,800 patents.
To avoid such incidents in the near future the government immediately decided to take certain remedial measures. They introduced a number of systems and programmes which are in practice even today. When a patent was recovered after the incident then USPTO decided to give it a certain code which should be followed in order to maintain the sequence. All the fractional patents, as they were called cannot however claim to be X-Patents.
In USA, the patents were given a specific date and title. The patents were properly numbered to keep the track. When the burnt patents were rediscovered they were also numbered from one with an X. From these patents earned the name X-Patents.
The latest patents discovered
In the 2004, some X-Patents were recovered from the archives of Darmouth College. 14 X-Patents were discovered, among which 10 patents were granted. Samel Morey received the patents and the first patent was for an internal combustion engine.
For more information about patents log on to patentshub.com.
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