Patent records document the process of getting federal protection for new ideas and processes. These records range from applications to drawings to court cases, and they contain a wealth of genealogical information. Thomas Edison's light bulb, Eli Whitney's cotton gin, and Michael Jackson's anti-gravity shoe all appear in the patent records of the United States.
Americans have always been tinkerers and inventors. From the earliest days of the Republic, the law protected inventors by granting them patents for their inventions. Starting with Samuel Hopkins who, on 31 July 1790, was issued the very first patent (for a potash-making process), and continuing right up to today, the records of the U.S. Patent Office can enrich any family’s history.
The United States, of course, wasn’t the first country to grant patents to inventors. What’s regarded as the first-ever patent was in 1421 in Florence, relating to a system to ship and transport marble for architectural projects. In 1449, a Flemish glassmaker was awarded an English patent that gave him a twenty-year monopoly on producing stained glass.
Patent protection was written into the United States Constitution with a grant of power to Congress “to promote the progress of science and useful acts by securing for limited times to … Inventors the exclusive right to their respective discoveries.” Congress promptly enacted the patent act of 1790 and ultimately established a separate patent office in 1802. The Patent Office as we know it today came from the patent act of 1836, which remains the foundation of American patent law even today.
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Patent types
Initially, the only inventions eligible for patent protection were so-called utility inventions: something that was supposed to be useful. In 1842, a second type of patent was allowed called the design patent. That covers items that are decorative or ornamental. Then in 1930 the law permitted a third type of patent, for plants.
Patents originally lasted for fourteen years. The 1836 law allowed one seven-year extension. In 1861, the law was changed and made protection last seventeen years. Then in 1995, patent protection was amended to extend twenty-years from the date of the patent application.
Early U.S. patents
The availability of protection under American law resulted in a growing number of patent applications. Only 262 patents were issued between 1790 and 1799. That more than tripled between 1800 and 1809. In the early 1830s, some 3000 patents were issued.
A fire in the patent office in 1836 destroyed many of the early records. Some inventors were permitted to re-record their patents and the entire patent process was streamlined in the statute passed that year. The expectation was that business would boom—and it did. In the ten years from 1836 to 1845, nearly five thousand patents were issued. Between 1846 and 1855, another ten thousand were issued. That grew to nearly forty thousand in the next decade and in the years after the Civil War, more than 126,000 inventions were given patent protection.
Yet another fire in 1877 destroyed the Patent Office but not the individual records of patents. The one-millionth patent was issued by the United States in August 1911, patent number 5,000,000 was issued in 1991, and by June 2023, the patent office was closing in on patent number 12,000,000.
Record group 241
All of the historical and archival files of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are held by the National Archives and Records Administration in Record Group 241. The records are in basically two forms: the patent case files that survived the two fires (held at the NARA regional repository in Kansas City) and the cartographic patent drawings for both utility and design patents (held at Archives II in College Park). Patent case files are extensive records including original filings, correspondence, records of disputes and claims of interference with patents, and much more. The patent drawings of the visual depictions of the patented item--sketches, drawings, even full-color paintings.
Court records
Because there were often heated battles between competing inventors, court records are also an excellent source of information about patents. Court cases over patents were litigated in the federal courts so those records will also be at the National Archives. Most records will be in Record Group 21, the Records of the United States District Courts. Appeals may be in Record Group 267, records of the Supreme Court, and Record Group 276, records of the United States Courts of Appeals. Patent case appeals for the period 1927 to 1973 may be found in Record Group 503, records of the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.
Finding records
To find patent records, the best place to start is Google Patents. A basic search from the landing page using a surname or keywords can produce the information needed to get a copy of any case file or drawing that survives. Google Patents also provides an advanced search function where the search can be limited by inventor name, type of patent, date and more. For many patents, the filings and drawings are accessible free online right there on Google Patents. Similar searches can be run on the website free patents online, and, of course, in the MyHeritage collection, Inventors of historical patents.
It’s also possible to search for records directly on the website of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in many cases, the filings and drawings are also available free to download. In every case, the key information needed is the patent number--that number can be used to obtain case files, patent drawings and more.
Scanned images
One key limitation to the records downloadable from the Patent Office or Google Patents is that the patent drawings are generally in black-and-white and reproduced from microfilm. They’re not nearly as clear or detailed as the original drawings. A scanned image in full color will be so much better than a black-and-white reproduction, and scans can be ordered for a fee from the National Archives.
Genealogical uses
If we put in all the work to track down the patent records for an invention, we’ll find ourselves with far more than just a nice artifact of an inventive family member. Patent records have a wide variety of potential genealogical uses.
Patent files can flesh out the story of an individual who appears as an inventor, as a witness to an application or even as an objector to a patent. They provide insight into people on a professional and intellectual level we can’t usually find elsewhere.
Patent applications also contain numerous original signatures, not just those of the inventor but witnesses, attorneys, objectors and more.
Patent records can also provide clues to friends, associates and neighbors among witnesses and co-inventors, and remember that patents could be inherited so there may be hints to family relationships in the records as well.
And patent records reflect the history of the country, allowing us to trace national development from a rural economy to the space age. Patents show the development of weapons of war, and medical devices to treat the wounds inflicted by war. They record the hopes and aspirations of those who sought to explore the boundaries of the sea, the land and the air. They reflect the dreams of a nation of inventors--some of whom may well be members of our families.
Explore more about patent records
- Inventors of historical patents record collection at MyHeritage
- Alabama, Index of Inventors, 1821-2021 record collection at MyHeritage
- Patents of Canada from 1824 to 1849 record collection at MyHeritage
- Five Women Inventors Whose Innovations Changed the World on the MyHeritage blog
- Four Famous Americans Who Applied for a U.S. Passport 100 Years Ago on the MyHeritage blog