America’s engine of innovation just reached a momentous milestone: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued patent No. 10 million on June 19th, 2018. Granted to inventor Joseph Marron at Raytheon, the patent was issued for an innovative imaging technology called “Coherent Ladar Using Intra-Pixel Quadrature Detection.”
This accomplishment marks a rapidly accelerating rate of progress and discovery. After the USPTO established the modern patent system and issued patent No. 1 in 1836, it took 155 years for inventors to reach patent No. 5 million – yet it’s taken only another 27 years to reach 10 million. And, most importantly, the innovations behind the patents are no less revolutionary, as exemplified by Joseph Marron’s invention.
To better understand Coherent Ladar Using Intra-Pixel Quadrature Detection, it’s helpful to look back at existing imaging technology. “Radio Detection and Ranging,” better known as radar, was invented in 1935 and gave us the ability to accurately determine range, angle and/or velocity of an object by bouncing radio waves off of it. Decades later, by using lasers and the speed of light, innovators were able to simultaneously produce an image of the object, which provided greater accuracy and range than radar could provide.
“Laser Detection and Ranging” – or Ladar – technology has since been incorporated across many fields, including autonomous vehicles, medical imaging, military defense, and space and underwater exploration. By incorporating Joseph Marron’s Intra-Pixel Quadrature Detection, which is essentially a high-powered computing/processing technology, Ladar imaging capabilities have become even further advanced, and may have the potential to improve the above fields that rely on rapid, accurate imaging.
When the first USPTO patent was granted in 1836, nobody would have predicted that autonomous vehicles, advanced medical imaging, and extensive space and underwater exploration would be possible. Nor would anyone have predicted that we would reach 10 million patents less than 200 years later. But it was that very first patent, and the establishment of the modern U.S. intellectual property system, that set today’s breakneck rate of discovery and progress into motion.
Ten million patents later, as we celebrate how far we’ve come, we must remember and recognize the tremendous power and promise of innovation. Promoting and protecting intellectual property has, and should continue to be, a top priority for improving lives and advancing tomorrow’s ideas around the world.
