Brainstorms and Mindfarts

An informative and occasionally bizarre collection of American inventions, products, and services of the past, present, and future from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, including the historically significant and commercially successful to the altogether frivolous and utterly useless! Innovation and entrepreneurism appear inextricably woven into the American DNA.

Throughout American history, the great inventors and innovators gazed into the future and saw the products and services that would transform the world. While passionate about creating this new thing called a democracy, our Founding Fathers were also driven to change the way humans lived and worked -- to complete everyday tasks faster, easier, and more efficiently. As of 2018, the U.S.

Patent & Trademark Office had granted its ten millionth patent. But with over 500,000 applications now being filed annually, fewer than half of these applicants will be granted patents and far fewer still -- an estimated one percent -- will realize commercial success, according to the Office. Some are flawed by mistakes or missing details, others too ridiculous to take seriously, still others simply ahead of their time.