When They Really Meant “Reduction-to-Practice”
Posted by: Bruce in Uncategorized, tags: Harvard exhibit, reduction to practiceAn interesting-sounding exhibit at Harvard.
I’m not a big fan of the PTO and today’s patent examiners but I have to admit their job has become more difficult over the years since the PTO was established. One thing that has made their job harder is only having a written description of the invention in front of them - and a set of (now) low quality figures. A new exhibit at the Harvard Science Center shows us 75 patent models - miniature representations of the invention - that inventors used to have to submit along with their applications. The requirement for a model was in force from 1790 to 1870.
For more background on patent models, read History on a small scale in the Harvard University Gazette Online.
Entitled “Patent Republic: Materialities of Intellectual Property in 19th-Century America” presents patent models for common inventions such as washing machines, carpet sweepers, and ice skates, as well as Thomas Edison’s carbonizer. The exhibit is on view, free, through Dec. 11 at the Science Center, 1 Oxford St. Open weekdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
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