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Corporations don't invent devices or design products, people do. The United States Patent Office recognizes this, and therefore a patent is never issued to a company, only to the inventor or designer who created the invention or design. If the inventor is employed by a company or has sold his invention to one, the patent is "assigned" to that company, and the name of the company appears on the patent as the assignee.

Compared to a utility patent, design patents are very simple. An issued design patent consists of a cover page containing the issue date, the names of inventors, the patent number and one or more line drawings. Sometimes more drawings may appear on additional pages. At least one additional page always includes patent application dates and numbers, the name of any assignee, a brief description of the design and a claim. The claim relates the designer to the design. The claim for the Vintage flatware design reads:

"I claim - The ornamental design for a handle for a spoon, fork or similar article as shown."

Each week the Patent Office issues the Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, usually just referred to as the Patent Gazette or Gazette. This publication is softbound and contains a brief description of each trademark and patent issued during the week. The design patents appear together at the end of the listings and take much less space than the utility patents, which make up most of the book.

A page usually contains descriptions of four newly-issued design patents. Each description contains the same information found on the cover sheet of the actual patent, plus the application information and the name of the assignee. Except for those few patents with multiple pages of drawings, it is just as effective to work with the Patent Gazette as with copies of the patents themselves. A typical page contains a mixture of unrelated items such as a directional signal casing, a water closet and two glass vessels.

Heisey collectors would be interested in those glass vessels. From the Gazette, we learn that T. Clarence Heisey is the designer and that in 1936 he designed at least two pieces in. the pattern shown and assigned them to A.H. Heisey and Co. of Newark, Ohio. As I scanned through the Gazette, I saw a number of design patents assigned to Heisey and Fostoria, so design patents look like a promising resource for glass collectors.

Most libraries do not have copies of the Patent Gazette - it is expensive, specialized and takes up a lot of shelf space. The Patent Office has established over 70 Patent Depository Libraries where the Gazette and copies of patents may be consulted. To find the one nearest to you, ask your local reference librarian. When you do so, be sure to mention the approximate time period you are interested in. Although the closest Patent Depository Library to me is in New Haven, Conn., that library maintains no patent records earlier than the 1970s.

If you like to search computerized data bases, the on-line services which I have investigated so far begin their patent records with 1975 and do not include drawings, probably the most important part of a design patent. Sometimes paper is still better.

My local librarian was able to identify the closest library with a set of Gazettes back to the 19th century: the Connecticut State Library in Hartford. When I went there, I found that some years existed as bound volumes and some had been placed on microfilm. The librarians there gave me excellent assistance in locating appropriate hardbound volumes and using the microfilm reader. There was no charge for these services, except for making copies.

When you have identified a patent of interest, if the patent falls within the time period covered by the Patent Depository Library you can get a copy at the library. You can also order a copy of any patent by mail. Send your request, including the patent number and $3 for each patent, to Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, Washington, DC 20231. This service takes about four weeks.

When a patent application has been filed, the maker of the object to which the patent applies may mark the object with "Patent Pending" or "Patent Applied for," or with an abbreviation for one of these expressions. This marking is not sufficient for you to find the patent or, indeed, to know whether a patent was ever actually issued.

After the patent has been issued, the object may be marked with the patent number or the date. Perhaps because of the tradition of date marking silver, flatware is often marked with the word "Patented" (or an abbreviation) and the issue date of the patent. Other items are more likely to be marked with the patent number, especially when the patent number represents a utility patent.

The same object may be the subject of multiple patents, some for its function and some for its design. I have three olive spoons, all marked "Pat. Oct. 27,1903." This patent date refers to the utility patent which covers the functional shape of the bowl of the spoon. At least two of these spoons are also covered by design patents with different dates. The design patents cover only the designs of the handles.

When a patent number appears rather than a date, a number below 1,000,000 is probably a design patent number. Utility and design patents have separate numbering systems and many more utility patents have been issued than design patents. You can obtain quick reference cards which show the relationship between patent numbers and dates since the beginning of the patent system.

When you know the patent number, you can order a copy of the patent or see it in a Patent Depository Library. With either the patent number or the patent issue date, you can use the Patent Gazette to see the description of the patent which appears there.

Standard reference works can also be helpful in finding patents. A flatware reference tells me that the Grosvenor pattern was patented Oct. 21, 1921. In the Gazette for that week, I turn to the design patent listings at the end and quickly find the description. Because there is a Grosvenor Square in London, I had always speculated on an English origin for the name of this pattern. It turns out that the designer to whom the patent was issued was Grosvenor N. Allen, who also designed many other patterns for Oneida. He must have liked this one, because he named it for himself.

Two famous names around the home are assigned patents in a 1950 Patent Gazette: Revere and Heywood Wakefield.

You can also use patent records to view, in capsule form, the design fashions of a selected period. As an experiment, I scanned all the design patents issued during the year 1950. 1 chose 1950 because it is the beginning of the '50s design period in which there is increasing interest these days. It is also a period I lived through - I yearned for limed oak the first time around. Perhaps a further reason was its availability on microfilm, permitting me to scan without any heavy lifting.

From the designs in the Patent Gazette, I conclude that 1950 was indeed a transitional year from prewar and wartime styles into Fifties Modern. It also marked a changing technology, although no one then could have realized how fast it was changing. I found stocking designs (not pantyhose) with the seam up the back carefully indicated; several television cabinets, both table models and floor models with lots of cabinetry; a computer console and a keypunch console.

Other 1950 designs have passed away. A radio cabinet which looked rather like a holdover from the '30s, was actually designed in England in 1946. It was probably only AM. No FM, no tape, no CD's. The reason it is so big, with the domed top, was to accommodate vacuum tubes without overheating. They don't make them that way anymore.

Another interesting 1950s piece was a Combined Pencil Holder and Multiplier. It looks like a tube, with an opening at both ends. You insert your No. 2 lead pencil into it and, voila!, you have a portable multiplier The pocket calculator has made this type of device completely obsolete but now, when you find one rattling around in an old desk drawer, you'll know what it's for and approximately when it was made.

A final comment on patent issue dates and their relationship to manufacturing dates. A patented product may have been made after the date of the patent application, but before the date the patent issued. Or, it may not have been produced until long after the patent issued. Or it may never have been produced at all. Just as not all manufactured items are patented, so not all patented designs are manufactured. Whether or not they were ever produced, however, patented designs provide a fascinating picture of an era and its designs.

The information available in the patents themselves and in the Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, as well as how to locate these resources, have been described above.

The Patent and Trademark Office of the U.S. Department of Commerce also publishes a booklet entitled "General Information Concerning Patents" (Revised 1990).

Also see Patent It Yourself, Third Edition, by David Pressman, Nolo Press. This book provides clear descriptions of the patent process and includes forms and other sample documents.

It's a good idea to start your research with the reference librarians at your local library. If they don't have the information you want, they can usually tell you where to find it.

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