Eli Whitney's 1793 cotton gin patent was one of the first ever issued in the United States.

The Patent Act of 1790 established the first federal patent system in the United States, creating a 'Patent Board' consisting of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and the Attorney General. Eli Whitney submitted his application for the cotton gin on June 20, 1793, during a time when Thomas Jefferson served as the nation's first Secretary of State. Jefferson, an inventor himself, was so intrigued by the device that he wrote to Whitney requesting a model to verify its mechanical efficiency.The patent was officially granted on March 14, 1794, but the simplicity of the design led to widespread infringement by farmers and rival manufacturers. At the time, the Patent Act of 1793 had replaced the original 1790 law, making the process more administrative but leaving the burden of enforcement entirely on the inventor. Whitney filed over 60 lawsuits in Georgia alone to defend his intellectual property, yet he won very few of them before the patent expired in 1807.These struggles highlighted significant flaws in early American law, specifically the lack of clear definitions for 'novelty' and 'utility.' The difficulties Whitney faced were a primary catalyst for the Patent Act of 1836, which created the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as a distinct entity. This 1836 overhaul introduced the formal examination process we use today, ensuring that patents are thoroughly vetted for originality before they are granted.