Intellectual Property (IP) Month, recognized every October, offers an opportunity to celebrate the inventions that have shaped American life, from the nation’s first patented invention to the sports bra — and the IP rights that enabled their success.
Patent holders exchange disclosure for time-limited rights to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention without permission. This exchange gives the public access to new ideas while allowing inventors to profit from their work.
Samuel Hopkins: America’s First Patent
On July 31, 1790, Samuel Hopkins received the first U.S. patent, signed by President George Washington, for an improved process for manufacturing potash. Used in fertilizer, potash supplies potassium, one of three essential plant nutrients.
Hopkins’s invention helped grow the U.S. agriculture sector, which today supports roughly one-fifth of U.S. economic activity, while the global potash market was valued at nearly $34 billion as of 2025.
Thomas Jennings: A Milestone for Black Inventors
On March 3, 1821, New York tailor Thomas Jennings became the first known Black American to receive a U.S. patent. His invention, a cleaning process called “dry scouring,” laid the foundation for today’s dry cleaning industry, which is estimated at over $88 billion.
Few details of Jennings’s invention survive because his patent was among roughly 10,000 “X-patents” that burned in a fire in 1836.
Jennings’ achievement reflected the unequal opportunities of his era. He was born free and could obtain a patent — though the process was still long and expensive — when enslaved Black Americans could not.
Philo Farnsworth: Securing a Stake in Television’s Future
On August 26, 1930, Philo Farnsworth received a patent for the first electronic television. He first conceived of a device that could produce images using beams of electrons eight years earlier while in high school.
Farnsworth founded a company to commercialize his invention and successfully defended his patents against invalidation attempts from the much larger Radio Corporation of America, earning $1 million in patent licenses.
Television went on to transform entertainment and news while helping spawn industries from movies to video games. Today, the global television broadcasting market is valued at more than $380 billion.
Lisa Lindahl, Hinda Miller, and Polly Smith: Revolutionizing Women’s Sports
On November 20, 1979, Lisa Lindahl, Hinda Miller, and Polly Smith received a patent for the first sports bra — which they called the Jogbra®.
The trio developed their invention after Lindahl, an avid runner, asked Miller and Smith — who were working as costume designers — to help solve the discomfort caused by running in ordinary bras. The three women devised a prototype by sewing two men’s jockstraps together.
Lindahl and Miller later co-founded a company to commercialize the invention, finding a growing market as Title IX helped expand women’s participation in athletics.
The sports bra fueled a revolution in women’s sports that continues to accelerate: Women’s sports revenue exceeded $2.3 billion last year, and in 2024-25, record numbers of women and girls participated in collegiate and high school sports.