Patent Reform During the early 1990’s, USPTO
Commissioner Harry F. Manbeck, Jr., encouraged
patent reform to improve the U.S. patent system and
make it more compatible with international patent-
ing procedures. Commissioner Manbeck served as
chair of the Advisory Commission on Patent Law Re-
form to consider U.S. and foreign patenting differ-
ences which were detrimental to marketing U.S. in-
ventions.
After he became USPTO commissioner in 1993,
Lehman emphasized the corporate benefits of in-
vention and the need for U.S. patenting strategies
that aided U.S. technology and scientific knowledge
to be competitive internationally. Under his leader-
ship, U.S. patent protection extended twenty years
from the time inventors applied, replacing the previ-
ous seventeen-year period starting when patents
were approved. In January, 1994, Lehman and Japan
Patent Commissioner Wataru Aso negotiated an
agreement stating that U.S. inventors’ English-
language applications could be filed in Japan before
being translated so that U.S. inventors would not
be delayed in claiming rights.
In 1996, federal legislators considered an omni-
bus bill that outlined such reforms as publishing pat-
ent applications eighteen months after they were
filed. Commissioner Lehman and the bill’s support-
ers emphasized that publication prevented manu-
facturers from possible infringement charges be-
cause they would be aware of inventors’ ideas
instead of them remaining secret. Opponents in-
cluded the Small Entity Patent Owners Association,
Alliance for American Innovation, and invention
groups supporting noncorporate inventors who
feared their ideas might be vulnerable to infringe-
ment prior to patent approval.
During 1997, U.S. representatives and senators
continued to debate the omnibus bill (H.R. 400) in
the U.S. House of Representatives, where sponsor
Representative Howard Coble (Republican, North
Carolina), speaking on behalf of corporate interests,
defended the bill against Representative Dana Rohra-
bacher (Republican, California), voicing indepen-
dent inventors’ concerns. Representative Marcy Kap-
tur (Democrat, Ohio) secured an amendment that
stated university, individual, and small company pat-
ent applicants were not required to publish applica-
tion information. U.S. senators considered the legis-
lation (S. 507) in their proceedings.
When Commissioner Lehman resigned in Octo-
ber, 1998, legislators still disagreed on reforms. His
successor, patent attorney Q. Todd Dickinson, sup-
ported USPTO Office of Independent Inventor Pro-
grams, which sought those inventors’ input. Legisla-
tors and groups, such as the 21st Century Patent
Coalition, continued to seek acceptable patent re-
forms regarding application publication, patent re-
evaluation, trade secret provisions, and transform-
ing the USPTO into a corporate organization.History, Events, and Awards Celebrations and ac-
tivities held in the United States during the 1990’s
honored inventions and inventors. That decade be-
gan with events commemorating the bicentennial of
the 1790 Patent Act. During May, 1990, the Founda-
tion for a Creative America oversaw patent bicenten-
nial festivities that included museum exhibits featur-
ing female and minority inventors. In 1990, the
National Inventors Hall of Fame, which had been es-
tablished in 1973, relocated from the USPTO to the
Inventure Place in Akron, Ohio. During the patent
bicentennial, the National Inventors Hall of Fame
hosted an induction that included the first African
American inductees, Percy Julian and George Wash-
ington Carver. The next year’s induction ceremony
admitted Gertrude Elion as the initial female inven-
tor inducted. By 1995, National Inventors Hall of
Fame officials chose Stephanie Kwolek, the Kevlar
inventor, for induction. In 1998, computer engineer
Mark Dean became the next African American in-
ductee, followed the next year by the fourth African
American inducted, James West, an acoustical engi-
neer.
The USPTO sponsored the yearly National Inven-
tors Expo in the 1990’s. Organizations and periodi-
cals sponsored invention workshops and competi-
tions for children and adults during the decade. In
December, 1992,Successful Farmingmagazine held
the initial National Farmer Inventors Congress at
Des Moines, Iowa, because readers had requested
help to patent and market inventions they had inno-
vated for practical agricultural uses. Farmers com-
peted in the affiliated Edisons of Agriculture contest
throughout the 1990’s, winning farm equipment
prizes for their inventiveness.
In 1995, the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-
ogy first presented the annual invention award,
the Lemelson-MIT Prize ($500,000), funded by
Jerome Lemelson. Winners during the 1990’s in-
cluded William Bolander, Herbert Boyer, Stanley460 Inventions The Nineties in America