The Patent Act of 1790 created the first US patent board and a legal framework for protecting inventions, replacing the British system where a patent was a favor granted personally by the king or queen. Under the new law anyone could invent something and have it legally protected. The board was initially run by three members of Washington's cabinet, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph, alongside their regular government duties, but the volume of patent applications quickly forced the creation of a separate dedicated board.
187 words · auto-generated from the episode video
4:34it shifted this concept of a patent coming from a royal favor which it used to be in the in Great Britain like you know the king would have to or the queen would have to you know be like oh this is yours now to now there's like a legal framework where anyone can invent something and have it protected. Funny thing about this um on the right hand side we see Washington's cabinet you have Jefferson um Henry Knox and Attorney General Edmund Randolph those three were in charge of the patent board because they were like oh we can be on the cabinet and also do this side job and very quickly they were like okay there's actually so many patents like I don't know what I was thinking I was going to be secretary of war and also be in charge of patents so they created a
5:15separate board that that then you know oversaw the whole thing but I think It's just funny that like Jefferson was like, "No, I I could probably do this." >> A side hustle, managing patents, not