Intellectual Property Law for Engineers, Scientists, and Entrepreneurs. Howard B. Rockman
to post‐grant cancellation if the covered device is proven to be inoperative.
Also required is that the disclosure in the patent application specification must define an invention and a device that will work for its intended purpose. If the device will not work for the purpose set forth in the specification, the patent, if granted, will become unenforceable and invalid.
The requirement of usefulness also holds that a patent cannot be granted to inventions that have not been developed to the point where a working embodiment can be disclosed in the patent application. This requirement that the invention must be useful is especially significant for new chemical compounds (including pharmaceuticals), because there may be no known use for a new compound. Often, much work must be conducted to experimentally verify the utility of a new compound before a patent application can be filed.
Upon development of any invention, the inventors should ask themselves the question: “What is my idea useful for, and why?” Once this question has been answered, the patent application can be drafted around it, showing that the invention will solve problems in the area in which your idea has been determined by you to be useful.
By way of anecdotal information, many years ago when I was a patent examiner, some of the other examiners in the chemical arts, over lunch, would tell stories about patent applications that were filed on chemical compounds, and that the usefulness for these chemical compounds was described as “for filling sandbags.” These were patent applications that were filed before the applicant corporation really knew what the chemical could be useful for. Today, the requirement is that the invention must have some stated use before the patent application is filed. I do not think filling sandbags today will carry much weight!
INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
John Deere
HORSE‐DRAWN PLOW
If you have ever been to the country, you have undoubtedly either seen a hat with his name on it or been stuck driving behind one of the behemoth tractors named after him. John Deere is his name‚ and the self‐polishing cast steel plow is his invention.
John Deere was born in Rutland, Vermont‚ on February 7, 1804. He lived in Middlebury, Vermont‚ for a good portion of his life. In 1825, after serving a four‐year apprenticeship, Deere started working as a blacksmith, producing hay forks and shovels, among other implements. He was so good that he soon gained significant fame in the area for his careful workmanship and ingenuity. During the Great Depression of the 1830s, things were not good for Deere or the people of Vermont. Many people decided to move out west, and they sent back stories of “golden opportunities.” After hearing these stories, Deere decided to abandon his business in Vermont and he moved to Grand Detour, Illinois, which was settled by other natives of Vermont. He brought with him a small amount of cash and his tools, which was fortunate because the town needed a blacksmith. Two days after his arrival he had already set up a shop, built a forge, and was busy working. His family then followed him to Grand Detour.
Deere became busy working in his new shop shoeing horses and oxen, and making and repairing farm equipment. From repairing farm equipment, Deere discovered that the rich, fertile soil of the Midwest prairie would stick to the plow bottoms. Plows designed for the light, sandy New England soil could not handle cutting and turning the Midwest soil. Farming in the Midwest became a slow, labor‐intensive task, and many farmers considered moving further west or back east.
Deere thought about this problem, and decided if he made a plow that was highly polished and shaped in the right way, it would scour itself and the prairie soil would not stick to the plow. Deere, with help from his partner, Major Leonard Andrus, made a plow to these specifications in 1837. The cutting part of this plow was constructed of steel, cut from an old sawmill blade and shaped by bending the blade over a log. The moldboard, used for lifting and turning the soil, was made of wrought iron and polished on the upper surface to prevent clogging. The plows were successfully tested on a farm near Grand Detour.
His new plow was very successful‚ and Deere, instead of making them as they were ordered, would produce a supply of plows and go out into the country and sell them. This approach was completely different from previous farm implement sales methods, and word quickly spread of Deere’s “self‐polishers.”
Deere encountered a few problems, however. Living in the frontier, there were few banks, poor transportation, and a scarcity of steel. Deere’s first plows were made from any steel he could find. In 1843, Deere ordered a shipment of specially rolled steel from England. This shipment had to cross the Atlantic Ocean, go up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, and go forty miles in a wagon to reach Deere’s shop in Grand Detour. In 1846, cast steel plows rolled in Pittsburgh and shipped to Moline, Illinois‚ solved this problem.
The Deere plow was so successful that by 1846, Deere and his partner were selling one thousand plows a year. Deere decided to sell his interest in the Grand Detour business to his partner, Leonard Andrus. He then organized a plow company in Moline, Illinois‚ in 1848, taking advantage of the water energy and transportation provided by the Mississippi River. He began experimenting with imported English steel, and had a cast steel plow made for him in Pittsburgh. By 1855, he was selling more than 13,000 such plows a year. He obtained his first patent for a walk‐behind, horse‐drawn plow in 1865, Patent No. 46,454.
INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
Erastus Brigham Bigelow
POWERED CARPET‐MAKING LOOMS
Erastus Brigham Bigelow was born in 1814, the son of a cotton weaver. Early in his life, he worked in his father’s business, which was not very successful. He then turned his attention to inventing, and before reaching the age of 18, had invented a hand loom for weaving webbing used in suspenders. Bigelow, at one time, was studying medicine at the Leicester Academy, intending to go to Harvard University. However, his financial situation deteriorated, and he left school to devote his time to inventing. In 1837, he developed a power loom for weaving lace used in coach lights. Bigelow then saw that the ideas behind his power loom could be modified to manufacture other fabrics, such as gingham. In 1839, he contracted to produce a power loom capable of weaving two‐ply ingrain carpets, which had previously been woven only by a handloom producing 8 yards of material a day. With his first power loom, Bigelow succeeded in obtaining 10 or 12 yards daily, which constantly increased through improvements until 25 yards per day was regularly achieved. However, the manufacturer of Bigelow’s first power loom failed, which resulted in Bigelow earning no profit from his first invention.
Later in 1841, he invented a power loom for weaving pictorial tapestry and velvet tapestry carpets, which was his most important invention and drew vast amounts of attention at the World’s Fair in London in 1851. The town of Clinton, Massachusetts‚ owed its growth in manufacturing importance to Bigelow, as the town was home to the Coach Lights Works and The Lancaster Quilt Company, which companies used the direct results of his inventions.
Bigelow, his brother, and other investors founded the Clinton Company in about 1838, to operate Bigelow’s looms and produce carpets. The Clinton Company later became the Bigelow Carpet Company. Central Massachusetts had abundant waterpower, which was perfect for operating Bigelow’s power looms. The factory jobs his loom created attracted a diverse group of Irish, English, Scottish, and German immigrants, as well as women from New Hampshire and Vermont.
Over a span of