October 05, 2001
#01-43

Patent for Xerox Technology Issued October 6, 1942

Patent for Xerox Technology Issued October 6, 1942 Electrophotography was precursor of the first office copier

PRESS RELEASE

Chester F. Carlson, considered the father of xerographic printing, received patent #2,297,691 on October 6, 1942 for electrophotography. Carlson's invention, the first method of making images by dry copying, evolved from his desire to eliminate hand reproduction of patent specifications and drawings at the electronics firm where he worked as a physicist. In 1947, he assigned the commercial rights to his invention to the Haloid Company, later renamed the Xerox Corporation. Carlson, who was born in Seattle, Washington, was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1981.

This patent, as well as the more than six million patents issued since the first in 1790, can be seen on the Department of Commerce's U.S. Patent and Trademark Office web site at www.uspto.gov .

Last year USPTO issued 182,223 patents and registered 127,794 trademarks.