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A SHORT HISTORY OF THE U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE



The U.S. Patent Office was established as a bureau of the Department of State in 1802 and subsequently transferred by Executive Order to the Department of Commerce, its present location. The name was changed from the Patent Office to Patent and Trademark Office in 1975.

During the latter part of the 1800’s, after nearly 500,000 patents had issued, it was suggested that the Patent Office be closed because “everything that could possibly be invented had already been invented.”

In fiscal year 2014, 615,243 patent applications were filed and 326,033 patents issued. To date, over 8.9 million patents have issued. The asymptotic growth of technology is evinced by the fact that approximately one-half of these issued in the past thirty years.


Client Approved

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"Our company has worked with a number of patent attorneys and were so pleased when we began working with Parsons & Goltry nearly a decade ago. Mike Goltry's knowledge and attention to detail has enabled us to have numerous products patented and trademarks registered. We highly recommend this Law Firm."

- Sharon K.

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"Michael Goltry is the most professional, honest and effective patent attorney whom I ever met in my 40 year professional engineering career. I started to work with him over 20 years ago and plan to work indefinitely."

- Zoltan Kemeny, PhD, Struct. Eng.

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"Mr. Goltry took a provisional patent that we'd filed ourselves, and quickly and professionally turned our innovation into U.S. and foreign applications. His [patent claims] were a thing of beauty, and I was amazed by how deftly he countered the inevitable office actions. His language held up, and the U.S. Patent just issued. He was easy and efficient to work with, and his fees were remarkably reasonable. We're not planning to go anywhere else, ever."

- Ski Milburn, CEO, Victori, LLC

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"I applied for a patent through Parsons & Goltry. After being on the docket for 2 years at the USPTO, I received notification that my patent request had been denied. Michael Goltry contacted me immediately to review my options. After I informed him of my decision to move forward, he filed a response to the USPTO. In his response he got the examiner to fully understand the claims in the patent application and the "denied" decision was reversed. I was able to secure and receive a "patent granted" decision. Thank you, Michael Goltry."

- Kathy H., Inventor

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