Canadian firm Ridout & Maybee LLP is celebrating its 125th anniversary and pointed out that its founders were behind Canada Patent Number 1. It got us to thinking… the first patent in the United States was issued to Samuel Hopkins in 1790 for “the making _______ by a new Apparatus and Process.”
Hint: The industrial substance was made primarily by soaking burned plants in water… and actually contributed to the naming of an element on the periodic table.
See the answer on the next page.
