Why is Progress based on patents?

January 30, 2023

As a patent lawyer, I found that many resources inaccurately described when something was invented. Many informational sources use the patent issue date to indicate when something was invented, but this is not accurate.

Patents usually issue several years after they are filed and after the product is commercialized. The issue date is not the invention date. After finding so much incorrect information about when particular inventions, including famouns products, came into existence, I decide to use patent filing dates to measure an approximate date when an invention was actually "invented."

Using patent filing dates is more accurate than an antecdote about when an inventor first had an idea or when a patent is issued. In the United States, patent applicants must file for a patent before or soon after (within a year) they disclose or sell their product or service. Often, patents are filed just before the product is sold.

We also found some confusion in our research based on when an inventor may have contemplated an invention or even created a precursor to it. However the uncertainty and subjectivity in pinpointing a date is more about the story. Patent applications are filed when an invention has been reduced to practice, meaning that the core elements of the invention have been pieced together, even if it is not yet ready for manufacture or sale.