The Patent Act of 1836 () established a number of important changes in the

United States patent system Under United States law, a patent is a right granted to the inventor of a (1) process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, (2) that is new, useful, and non-obvious. A patent is the right to exclude others, for a limited ...

. These include: *The examination of

patent application A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for an invention described in the patent specification and a set of one or more claims stated in a formal document, including necessary official forms and re ...

s prior to issuing a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

. This was the second time this was done anywhere in the world. The only other time an examination period existed prior to this act was in the United States from 1790 to 1793 under the

Patent Act of 1790 The Patent Act of 1790 () was the first patent statute passed by the federal government of the United States. It was enacted on April 10, 1790, about one year after the constitution was ratified and a new government was organized. The law was concis ...

. Prior to this, patents were issued on all applications, even if they were direct copies of earlier patents.Waltersheid, Edward C. (1998) ''To Promote the Progress of Useful Arts, American Patent Law and Administration'' Littleton: Rothman pp 3. It was left to the courts to decide validity in the event of a lawsuit. *The option of extending an existing patent's term for an additional seven years, making the maximum term of patent 21 years. (This was abolished in 1861 and replaced with a single 17-year term.) *The hiring of professional

patent examiner A patent examiner (or, historically, a patent clerk) is an employee, usually a civil servant with a scientific or engineering background, working at a patent office. Major employers of patent examiners are the European Patent Office (EPO), the Un ...

s. Initially only one examiner was hired, but soon a second one was hired to handle the increased workload. *The establishment of a library of

prior art Prior art (also known as state of the art or background art) is a concept in patent law used to determine the patentability of an invention, in particular whether an invention meets the novelty and the inventive step or non-obviousness criteria ...

to assist in examinations.

References

1836 in American law United States federal patent legislation History of patent law {{US-fed-statute-stub

See also

References