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97 J. Pat. & Trademark Off. Soc'y [i] (2015)

handle is hein.journals/jpatos97 and id is 1 raw text is: From the Editor Two hundred and twenty five years ago, President Washington signed the first patent act into law. The 1790 Patent Act covered any useful art, man- ufacture, engine, machine or device, or any improvement therein not before known or used.' The Act named a board of Commissioners for the Promo- tion of Useful Arts, which included the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War and the Attorney General. At the time of its enactment, these roles were filled by Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox and Edmund Randolph.2 Early inventors were required to submit a specification, a drawing and, if feasible, a model of the device. Filing fees began at fifty cents and increased by ten cents for every hundred words in the specification.3 Patents were granted for varying durations, up to fourteen years and were signed by the President and Vice President of the United States. Jefferson, Knox and Randolph would hardly recognize the system we have in place today. In the ten generations since the first patent act, the United States has developed the largest and most significant intellectual property system in the world. While it is not without flaws, this system has provided the public unparalleled innovation and rewarded inventors for their hard work. There is evidence to suggest that Jefferson had a distaste for patents and monopolies in general.' Even so, he would have been pleased to see what had developed from such a concise act of Congress. I imagine that he would be even more pleased (and probably more interested in) the discoveries that have been made with the support of our American patent system. For the past 97 years, the Journal of the Patent & Trademark Office Society has diligently covered developments in patents, trademarks and copyright. As we look forward, I can only hope that the next 225 years of intellectual property law are as exciting and surprising as the first. Sean Patrick Burke Editor in Chief Journal of the Patent & Trademark Office Society editor@jptos.org 1P.J. Federico, Operation of the Patent Act of 1790, 18J. PAT. & TRADEMARK OFF. SOC'Y 237 (1936). 21d. 31d. Id. n. 3.

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