U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Unveiling New Patent Design at SXSW

Innovation is a key theme of SXSW and America’s Innovation Agency – the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) — will be in Austin once again making big news this year. After issuing patents for more than 225 years, patent number 10 million will be granted sometime in 2018. To commemorate the occasion, the USPTO is changing the design of the patent grant cover, which is the document issued to inventors upon the granting of a U.S. patent. The patent office has only redesigned the document twice in the last hundred years, and the current design is more than 30 years old. The new design will be unveiled at SXSW at the Hilton Austin on March 11 at 4:30pm.

Giving inventors exclusive rights to their ideas was defined in the U.S. Constitution, and the 10 millionth represents a significant milestone documenting the United States’ global achievements in innovation and the economic powerhouse that can be built with over 200 years of intellectual property protection. A team of in-house USPTO graphic designers, led by agency employee Jeff Isaacs, created the new patent cover design. After several iterations, Commissioner for Patents Drew Hirshfeld made the final selection from three potential final designs. Hirshfeld, along with USPTO Director Andrei Iancu and National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee Robert Metcalfe will unveil the design at the March 11 event.

The 225-plus year history of the patent cover has seen fewer than twelve basic designs since President George Washington granted the first patent in 1790. Previous designs featured calligraphy, elaborate engravings, and high-quality typesetting. The advent of desktop publishing in the late 20th century resulted in a design that did not reflect the importance of the document as well as it could.

We do not yet know exactly when patent 10 million will be issued or what the patent protect. More information about the patent design unveiling at SXSW is available here.

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