Question from John L.:
I know you talked about the longest patent application ever filed. What about the shortest?
With about 480,000 applications filed each year with the USPTO, it is difficult to nail down what is the shortest application. The shortest application I have ever seen is also one of the most interesting. Application 20040005535 filed on January 8, 2004 for a Process of reincarnation has only 13 words in its abstract, one claim and no drawing. You can view this application in the USPTO database.
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Each of the patents for the elements Americium and Curium were exactly two words in length. “Element 96” and “Element 96.” They were both filed by Nobel Prize winning chemist Dr. Glenn Seaborg. These are the only patented chemical elements.
Make that “Element 95” and “Element 96” sorry.
Thanks for reading, Glenn!
When I saw your comment, I immediately found myself searching for the two patents you mentioned. And, what I discovered was pretty interesting –
The patents for Americium & Curium (Element 95 & Element 96) are not the shortest patents on record, but they do have some of the shortest patent claims on record.
US Patent 3156523 for Americium, does list its first claim as, simply, “Element 95.” Curium, which is Element 96 and the subject of US Patent 3161462 also lists its first claim in two words: “Element 96.”
Even the application mentioned above – which as far as I know was never actually granted patent status – involves a claim that is a full sentence long.
That said, what I found even more interesting about the elements you mentioned, is the fact that they are chemical elements, something that wouldn’t normally be patentable. But, because Seaborg & co. developed a means of essentially manufacturing the elements, he was able to obtain their patents. Granted, it took some 15 years from the filing date for them to be issued…
…alas, that’s a story for another post!
Thanks again, for your input, Glenn. It’s always great to cross paths with fellow geeks
_tG
Yes, and while the patent for Curium never had much value, Americium, a radioactive transuranium element, is found widely in millions of homes and buildings. Where? In the smoke detector. Dr. Seaborg, who said that he received some kind of royalty payment for smoke detectors using Americium, said in 1990 that about one-third of all smoke detectors sold in the US used Americium. I never asked him how he was able to secure a patent for work that he did while on the government payroll using government equipment! But the man was a true pioneer in nuclear chemistry and may simply have asked for permission. In the midst of WWII and the Manhattan Project (he was attached to the Chicago part of the project), I suppose General Groves and Robert Oppenheimer probably didn’t care about the commercial implications as long as no secrecy laws were violated. And the two words “Element 95” and “Element 96” were the surest way to avoid breaking secrecy laws. I’ll look forward to learning more about it in your next post.
Oh and by the way, the patent claim came a few years after the Manhattan project, but the research and work was done during the Manhattan project. Seaborg and his coworkers selected the names for several elements, some named after places and some named after scientists. In a sense, Seaborg could write his address using elements that he helped name: Seaborgium (his name), Lawrencium (he worked at the Lawrence Hall of Science), Berkelium (the city and also his university), Californium (his state) and Americium (his country). Some of the elements were named after people, famous scientists. Curium, Mendelevium, Fermium, Einsteinium. These latter two, interestingly were named while the famous scientists were still alive. Enrico Fermi, who Seaborg knew fairly well, and Albert Einstein, whom Seaborg had met as an undergrad when introduced by a German language professor at UCLA, died before the naming of the elements could be announced publicly, however. Secrecy laws prevented the announcement, but the names had been decided upon by Seaborg and the scientists who developed the elements (these are artificial or man made chemical elements, therefore apparently patentable.) Anyway, do your fact checking because I am just going from memory right now based on the stories told to me and others by Dr. Seaborg.