United States Patent and Trademark Office

John B. Goodenough’s battery is still going strong—in more ways than one. The co-developer of the lithium-ion battery will turn 99 on July 25.

The patent, issued on May 11 to co-inventors Jason Diedering and Saravana Kumar at 4C Medical Technologies in Maple Grove, Minnesota, is for a medical device that positions (or repositions) an expandable prosthetic valve in a patient’s heart and can prolong lives.

Discover the remarkable legacy of Forrest Bird, the inventor of the life-saving Bird Mark 7 Respirator. On June 9, 2021, we commemorate what would have been his 100th birthday, honoring his groundbreaking contributions to respiratory care. From his innovative respirators to his lifelong passion for aviation, learn about Bird’s impact on medicine and his humble journey from a homemade device to a global lifesaver.

USPTO’s Pro Bono Program helps solve inventor’s quest for a patent that ‘was going to be impossible.’ When Michael Lopez noticed that the delivery ramps on trucks he drove failed to fit delivery locations and led to serious injury for delivery people, he set out to solve the problem. But he had a problem of his own.

The USPTO will conduct the National Summer Teacher Institute (NSTI) on Innovation, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), and Intellectual Property during the week of July 19-23, 2021. The program is virtual this year. Teachers can apply to participate online through June 7.

Dr. Alfred Yi Cho’s invention was indeed where no man has gone before, but with vast impacts on Earth. Whenever you make a cellphone call, read words on a computer, watch a DVD, or use a microwave oven, you are benefiting from molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).

It doesn’t seem too long ago that if you needed to find detailed information about something, you would visit the library. But even now, with all kinds of information instantly available via the internet, a USPTO library program with a human touch is a great resource for anyone researching patents and trademarks.

Jamie Holcombe was a 25-year-old serving in the U.S. Army when he was asked to lead a communication platoon of American soldiers. They were male and female. They ranged in age from 19 to 43. They came from diverse backgrounds in culture and language.

March Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium series inspired and educated a growing inventor demographic. What you do is pivot. That was the theme of the March 3 Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium (WES) virtual panel discussion, “Always Dancing: Entrepreneurship and the Art of the Pivot.”

Luther Burbank would have been consumed with gleeful anticipation for Earth Day on April 22, just as he was at the beginning of every planting season.

Dr. Grandin, a professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University who holds U.S. Patent No. 5,906,540 for her animal stunning system, is also a best-selling author whose contributions to autism awareness and the livestock industry were captured in an HBO Emmy Award-winning movie about her life.

Some of the best teachers benefit from the teachers who shaped them. Dr. Jorge L. Valdes, an Education Program advisor and STEM educator at the USPTO, smiles when he thinks back at lunchtime during his long career at AT&T Bell Labs.