Washington – The U.S. Commerce Department’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will commemorate the 225th anniversary of the Patent Act by hosting a series of panel discussions at the USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia on Friday, April 10, 2015. Enacted on April 10, 1790, the Patent Act expanded upon the progress clause in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution which promoted “the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries” by further defining the subject matter of a patent as “any useful art, manufacture, engine, machine, or device, or any improvement thereon not before known or used.”
