In 1790, Congress enacted the first patent laws for "Any useful art, manufacture, engine machine or device, or any improvement therein, not before known or used."
The original patent act authorized the secretaries of state and of war and the attorney general, as a board, to grant patents after examining applications. The first US patent was granted to Samuel Hopkins, a resident of Vermont. The patent granted Samuel Hopkins a patent for "Improvement, not known before such Discovery, in the making of Pot ash and Pearl ash by a new Apparatus and Process." The patent gave Samuel Hopkins "the right to exclude others from making, using or selling" his invention for pot and pearl ashes. The following are photographs of the original document and the resting place of Samuel Hopkins.
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