Author name: Inventors Digest

The folklore wisdom of the owl and the hardy but elegantly designed cactus plant represent the tapestry of her life and career. They are also the embodiment of two fundamental forces that have guided her life and career: her mother, Acrelia Alcantar, and her grandmother, Balbina Zamora.

America’s largest technology trade show, with more than 135,000 attendees, 4,300 exhibiting companies, and over 1,400 startups, also hosted a fireside chat, “Protecting America’s Best Ideas: A Conversation with USPTO Director Kathi Vidal,” on January 9 and an illuminating hour-long USPTO panel, “Empowering Women’s Entrepreneurship: Leading Women Leading Change,” on January 11.

The ’23 inductees—honored at a black-tie gala at The Anthem in Washington, D.C., on October 26—included four Nobel Prize winners and a National Medal of Technology and Innovation winner, the latter the nation’s highest award for technological achievement. But Dr. Rory Cooper, the NMTI honoree, said in his NIHF acceptance speech that all Hall members are interwoven by an uncommonly noble common thread.

The USPTO will open a new regional office in the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan area serving innovators in the Southeast region, and a new community outreach office in Strafford County, New Hampshire, serving innovators in the New England region.

Located in the Terminal Annex Federal Building downtown, the Texas Regional Office serves Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. It opened on Nov. 9, 2015—the same year “The Lone Star State” was made the official state nickname for Texas.

After eight months of input from stakeholders, the USPTO trademark search system launched on November 30. The new system provides a more stable search environment with a simplified search interface that also supports complex searching for advanced users.

In the early morning hours of July 25, 1916, Garrett Morgan awoke to the incessant ringing of the telephone. On the line was Cleveland’s police department. There had been a disaster at the new West Side waterworks, and they needed Morgan’s help.

Patented inventions are in every common device and product you use every day: your smartphone, car, or even your comb. Indeed, the USPTO just granted the 1 millionth design patent for a comb created by Agustina Huckaby, an inventor and licensed cosmetologist from Fort Worth, Texas.

A recently released Office of the Chief Economist report underscores the importance of innovation in the health field—in this case, during the unprecedented health crisis known as COVID-19.