{"id":1421,"date":"2007-06-01T00:01:54","date_gmt":"2007-06-01T07:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/01\/discovering-the-creative-genes-of-an-inventor-in-the-family\/"},"modified":"2007-06-01T00:01:54","modified_gmt":"2007-06-01T07:01:54","slug":"discovering-the-creative-genes-of-an-inventor-in-the-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/1421","title":{"rendered":"Discovering the Creative Genes of an Inventor in the Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my full-time job, I sometimes search the patent literature for background information and evidence of prior art.<\/p>\n

\"Patent<\/a><\/p>\n

While searching the database<\/a> of the United States Patent and Trademark Office<\/a>, I unexpectedly found a family member. My cousin, Joe Danko, has been awarded a number of patents, including:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. 6,879,391<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0 Particle detection method and apparatus<\/li>\n
  2. 6,774,991<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0 Method and apparatus for inspecting a patterned semiconductor wafer<\/li>\n
  3. 6,621,570<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0 Method and apparatus for inspecting a patterned semiconductor wafer<\/li>\n
  4. 5,805,278<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0 Particle detection method and apparatus<\/li>\n
  5. 5,659,390<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0 Method and apparatus for detecting particles on a surface of a semiconductor wafer having repetitive patterns<\/li>\n
  6. 5,325,174<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0 Integrated optic gyro with one Bragg transducer<\/li>\n
  7. 5,022,760<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0 Compound resonator for improving optic gyro scale factor<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I have to admit that the details of most of these patents are beyond my experience and understanding, but I am nonetheless impressed by\u00c2\u00a0how my cousin Joe has developed and expressed his Creative Genes. What little I know about\u00c2\u00a0the first five patents listed above is that\u00c2\u00a0Joe’s inventions are used to inspect computer chips, and may even have been used to inspect the chips used\u00c2\u00a0in my own computer.<\/p>\n

    The US Patent and Trademark Office database provides not only references to these patents but also provides\u00c2\u00a0online images\u00c2\u00a0of patents from 1790 to the present .\u00a0Patents from 1790 through 1975 are searchable\u00c2\u00a0only by\u00c2\u00a0Issue Date, Patent Number, and Current US Classification, but patents from 1976 to the present are searchable by full-text, including name of inventor.<\/p>\n

    After\u00c2\u00a0finding these patents for my cousin Joe, I searched for\u00c2\u00a0the surnames\u00c2\u00a0of my ancestors, and I found patents issued to inventors with the surnames Niedzialkowski, Jara, Sowa, Chotkowski, Dziura, and Mossakowski. Who knows? Some of these inventors may also be distant cousins.<\/p>\n

    The patent database provides still another opportunity for reporting the results of our genealogical research. Throughout history, our ancestors\u00c2\u00a0have been\u00c2\u00a0greatly affected by the Creative Genes of others. Inventions such as the sewing machine<\/a>,\u00a0the electric lamp<\/a>, the telephone<\/a>,\u00a0the zipper<\/a>, aspirin<\/a>, and the phonograph<\/a> revolutionized the way our ancestors lived.<\/p>\n

    Take a look at Jim Bieberich’s Historical U.S. Patents<\/a> site to find the patent numbers of the inventions that\u00c2\u00a0influenced the lives of your ancestors .\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Then, search the U.S. Patents and Trademark database<\/a> to obtain\u00c2\u00a0a copy\u00c2\u00a0of the original patent.<\/p>\n

    Information on the\u00c2\u00a0inventions that our ancestors embraced with awe and wonder can add color and depth to the stories of our ancestors’ lives.<\/p>\n

    Copyright \u00a9 2007 by Stephen J. Danko<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In my full-time job, I sometimes search the patent literature for background information and evidence of prior art. While searching the database of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, I unexpectedly found a family member. My cousin, Joe Danko, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[172],"class_list":["post-1421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-journal","tag-carnival-of-genealogy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pyBfX-mV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}