Ten Million (10,000,000) Patents

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) anticipates that utility patent number 10,000,000 will issue sometime in 2018.  According to the PTO, the 10 millionth patent symbolizes the position of the United States as an innovative and economic powerhouse based on the protection of inventions found in the United States Constitution. The right to protect inventions was so important to the founders of the United States that the language protecting inventions is found in ARTICLE ONE of the U.S. Constitution. Right up front, at the start, the Constitution grants to Congress the power:

“To promote 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.”

To commemorate utility patent number 10,000,000 the PTO developed a new patent cover design, and the 10 millionth patent will be the first patent to have the new cover, shown below.