Patent model

A patent model was a scratch-built miniature no larger than 12" by 12" that showed how a patent works. It was one of the most interesting early features of the U.S. patent system.

Since most early inventors were ordinary people without technological or legal training, it was difficult for them to submit formal patent applications. Actually, the patent system then was very crude by today's standards. It was a good idea for these amateur inventors to submit a model with a brief explanation or drawing of it.

Patent models were required from 1790 to 1880. The Congress of the U.S. abolished the legal requirement for them in 1870. However, the U.S. Patent Office kept this requirement until 1880. Some inventors still willingly submited models at the turn of the 20th century.

External links

• "Patent Models' Strange Odyssey" by Teresa Riordan, The New York Times, February 18, 2002.
• The Rothschild Petersen Patent Model Museum
• The patent model of Alexander Graham Bell's No. 174,465 invention
• Patent model windmill c.1860-70