Patent Law Practice Center

Two Near Misses in the History of Patents

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently issued U.S. Patent No. 9,000,000, entitled Windshield Washer Conditioner. The 9-millionth patent protects a system that collects and treats rainwater for replenishing a vehicle’s windshield wiper fluid. As I pointed out in an article here on IPWatchdog, it took less than 3 years and 8 months to reach this milestone after the last “million patent” was reached on August 16, 2011, when U.S. Patent No. 8,000,000, titled Visual Prosthesis, issued.

Do you remember who lost in the World Series last year? How about the Super Bowl? Do you know who was the second American in space? Unless you are a famous for being a runner-up, like the Buffalo Bills were during a 4-year run of losing in the Super Bowl, people tend to forget. See Super Bowl Results. I suspect that same tendency is also true with respect to patents. We tend to focus on these nice, round numbers when looking at significant points in history.

Today, however, we stick up for the little guy in this conversation, the contenders, or if you prefer, the “near misses.” So today, I thought we’d take a look at a couple of patents which will probably be lost to the annals of time simply because their issue number was off by one. (more…)