Posts Tagged: "Giles Sutherland Rich"

One summer night in 1926, while staying at the Willard Hotel, Giles Sutherland Rich made a decision that set in motion a chain of events that account for our being here tonight. As a young man, he wanted to be a pilot, because, he later said, he thought commercial aviation “might have a future. But he failed his eye exam. And so he had to look for a different career… They stayed at the Willard Hotel, which was just across the street from the Patent Office in those days. It was there, he told a dinner audience celebrating his 90th birthday one evening in that very same hotel, that he decided to become a patent lawyer himself. And so he got his law degree and embarked on what turned out to be a 27-year career in private practice. During that time, he came to greatly admire the work of Judge Learned Hand, and he sometimes visited his courtroom just to observe.

A patent is a proprietary right granted by the Federal government pursuant to laws passed by Congress. The Congressional power to authorize patents is found in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, of the United States Constitution. exclusive rights are provided for a limited time as an incentive to inventors, entrepreneurs and corporations to engage in research and development, to spend the time, energy and capital resources necessary to create useful inventions; which will hopefully have a positive effect on society through the introduction of new products and processes of manufacture into the economy, including life saving treatments and cures. See Kewanee Oil Co. v. Bicron Corp., 416 U.S. 470, 480 (1974).