米国特許 第7,777,777号は誰の手に？

当ブログ以外で誰も注目していないと思われるが、おそらく今年年末に米国特許は記念すべき第7,777,777号に到達する。ちなみに第7,000,000号は2006年にDu Pontが取得している。ユーモアのわかる米国企業らしくHonme Page上で話題にしている。当時のUSPTOの公式Press Releaseには、それまでの節目の特許の内容を紹介している。

Patent Assigned to DuPont for Novel Fibers

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today issued patent No. 7 million to DuPont senior researcher John P. O’Brien for “polysaccharide fibers” and a process for their production. The fibers have cotton-like properties, are biodegradable and are useful in textile applications.

It took 75 years to get from patent No.1 to patent 1 million. It has taken less than one tenth of that time to go from 6 million to 7 million patents. 

Patent No. 1 million was issued on August 8, 1911, for a tubeless vehicle tire.

Twenty-four years later, on April 30, 1935, patent No. 2 million issued for a vehicle wheel to increase the safety and longevity of pneumatic tires.

Patent No. 3 million issued 26 years later on September 12, 1961, to an inventor at the General Electric Co., for an automated system that translated letters, numbers and symbols to data processing code.

Patent No. 4 million issued 15 years later on December 28, 1976 for a process for recycling asphalt aggregate compositions.

Fifteen years later, on March 19, 1991, Patent No. 5 million issued to a University of Florida inventor, for a more efficient way to produce fuel ethanol.

Only eight years later, patent No. 6 million issued on December 7, 1999, to 3Com Corporation’s Palm Computing for its HotSync® technology.

And now just a little more than six years later, patent No. 7 million issues.

Patent No. 1 was issued in 1836. Earlier patents were not numbered, although the first U.S. patent was issued in 1790. Approximately 10,000 patents were issued between 1790 and 1836. The USPTO issued 151,079 utility patents in fiscal year 2005. 

どれも時代を色濃く反映した特許ばかりである。当ブログの計算によると、現在一日460件の特許が登録されており、このペースで行くと今年2010年10月27日あたりに米国特許始まって以来のラッキーナンバー7,777,777に到達する。

さて、どのような特許がこの幸運を得るのであろうか、当ブログの大胆予想ではgoogle社のエネルギーの利用に関するものと予想しておく。これほどのラッキーナンバーであるから、この特許が人類の幸運な未来を切り開いていくものと期待したい。