Patents, Power, and the Fight Between David and Goliath

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America built its patent office before it had paved roads in its own capital, and that decision still shapes how invention works today.

Bruce Berman is joined by Eric Hintz, an invention historian at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, for a conversation that traces the roots of the U.S. patent system back to the Constitutional Convention and forward through the rise of corporate research labs. Hintz explains why the framers designed a patent system meant to be accessible to anyone, how independent inventors and corporations have alternated the upper hand for over a century, and how figures like Robert Kearns and Samuel Rubin illustrate both the promise and the limits of protecting an invention as an individual.

The conversation matters well beyond patent attorneys. It touches on how innovation actually gets funded, commercialized, and credited, and why the health of the independent inventor matters to entrepreneurs, investors, and anyone who cares about where the next big idea will come from.

Understanding IP Matters is produced by the Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU). Subscribe on your platform of choice or visit understandingip.org.

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Eric Hintz / Smithsonian National Museum of American History: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-s-hintz-phd/

REFERENCES & LINKS

• American Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D by Eric Hintz
• Men of Progress, 1862 painting by Christian Schussele, National Portrait Gallery
• Zorina Khan, economic historian at Bowdoin College
• Kara Swanson, Northeastern University School of Law, research on the invention of Ned
• Robert Kearns and the intermittent windshield wiper story
• National Museum of American History patent model collection

00:00 Introduction
00:18 Meet Eric Hintz of the Smithsonian
01:05 The Constitution's patent and copyright clause
02:11 How European monarchies handled patents
03:30 America's democratic, egalitarian patent system
04:19 The pendulum between inventors and corporations
05:53 The rise of corporations in the 1880s
07:01 Robert Kearns and the windshield wiper case
07:50 The America Invents Act of 2011
09:02 From garages to global companies
10:16 Three ways independent inventors made money
12:42 Samuel Rubin and the Duracell partnership
17:00 The old Patent Office building in Washington
19:27 Patent models at the Smithsonian collection
20:56 The Men of Progress painting
23:36 The story of Ned, an enslaved inventor
26:07 How corporate R&D marketed against inventors
28:41 Why predatory patent practices carry little stigma
31:48 Why innovation cannot be kept down
36:03 Closing thoughts on America's inventors

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Understanding IP Matters is brought to you by the nonprofit Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU) with generous support from its partners and sponsors. The podcast provides leading innovators and experts the space to share their IP stories.

Subscribe on your platform of choice or visit understandingip.org.
To reach us: explore@understandingip.org