Building a Better Mousetrap: Patenting Biotechnology In
LINCOLN AND THE PATENT SYSTEM: INVENTOR, LAWYER, ORATOR, PRESIDENT Jeffrey M. Samuels* & Linda B. Samuels** INTRODUCTION .............................................................................646 I. LINCOLN'S INTEREST IN TECHNOLOGY AND MECHANICS....... 647 II. LINCOLN THE PATENTEE .......................................................648 III. LINCOLN THE PATENT LITIGATOR .........................................650 IV. LINCOLN THE PUBLIC LECTURER ..........................................666 V. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT ........................................................670 CONCLUSION ................................................................................674 * J.D., Albany Law School, 1975; David L. Brennan Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Intellectual Property Law and Technology, The University of Akron School of Law. ** M.P.A., State University of New York at Albany, 1971; J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 1975; Professor, Business Legal Studies, George Mason University. 645 646 ALBANY GOVERNMENT LAW REVIEW [Vol. 3 “The patent system . secured to the inventor, for a limited time, the exclusive use of his invention; and thereby added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius, in the discovery and production of new and useful things.”1 INTRODUCTION The bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth provides an appropriate occasion to revisit the ideas and contributions of our sixteenth President.2 Of particular interest to patent lawyers is Lincoln’s extensive interest in, and involvement with, the U.S. patent system as inventor, lecturer, lawyer, and President.3 1 See Second Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions (Feb. 11, 1859), in 3 THE COLLECTED WORKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 356, 363 (Roy B. Basler et al. eds., 1953) [hereinafter COLLECTED WORKS]. 2 Commemorations of Lincoln’s life were held on President’s Day 2009 throughout the United States as well as in the months leading up to the bicentennial and the months following.
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