Unofficial Gazette

12/10/02

In the past year, the Historical Display Committee has sponsored a series of contests to select a historical patent display to be presented to each Technology Center in the USPTO. The goal of these contests has been to select a significant, historic and interesting patent in the area of the technologies assigned to each Technology Center. The purpose of the contests is to enhance the appreciation of all persons who work for or do business with each Technology Center of the historical and important nature of the innovations that have been examined in that Technology Center. The winning entry in each contest is made into a display that consists of a framed display page of the winning patent and a framed written description of the patent including the name of the contest winner. The written description is based on but not limited to the written statement of the contest winner. This display is then exhibited in a prominent area of the Technology Center. Within the past year, two series of these contests have been held.

The first series of contests were conducted in Technology Centers 2900, 3600 and 3700. These contests are completed, the winners selected and presentation ceremonies held. The winners were as follows: TC2900 – Robert Spear was presented the award for submitting Design Patent No. 186,119 for Henson and Nebel’s “Puppet Doll”; TC3600 – Judy Swann was presented the award for submitting Patent No. 821,393 for the Wright brothers’ “Flying Machine”; and TC3700 – John Chapman was presented the award for submitting Patent No. 4,750 for Howe’s “Sewing Machine”. A complete write up with photographs of the winners may be viewed in the March 2002 issue of the USPTO PULSE (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ahrpa/opa/pulse/epulse/pulse0203_7...). Additional photographs of the award ceremonies may be found on the PTOS Web site under Unofficial Gazette, Recent Photos, PTOS Gallery, “historicaldisplay” and “historical2” (http://www.ptos.org/ptos-gallery/historicaldisplay/index.html and http://www.ptos.org/ptos-gallery/historical2/index.html respectively).

The second series of contests were held in Technology Centers 1600 and 1700. These contests are completed, the winners selected and presentation ceremonies held. The winners were as follows: TC1600 – Jeffrey Fredman was presented the award for submitting Patent No. 4,237,224 for Cohen and Boyer’s “Process for Producing Biologically Functional Molecular Chimeras”; and TC1700 – Christopher Young was presented the award for submitting Patent No. 226,503 for Eastman’s “Method and Apparatus for Coating Plates for use in Photography”. Photographs of the award ceremonies may be found on the PTOS Web site under Unofficial Gazette, Recent Photos, PTOS Gallery, “historical08092002/” and “historic-contest-tc1700/” (http://www.ptos.org/ptos-gallery/historical08092002/index.html and http://www.ptos.org/ptos-gallery/historic-contest-tc1700/index.html respectively).

A third series of contests is being planned for the remaining Technology Centers in the near future. Come see the winning entries displayed in the reception areas for the above Technology Centers.

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