Pasquale Joseph Federico

Pasquale Joseph Federico (March 25, 1902 – January 2, 1982^[1]) was a lifelong mathematician and longtime head of the United States Patent Office.

Biography

He was born in Monessen, Pennsylvania. About 1910 the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he gained a bachelor's degree in physics at Case Institute of Technology in 1923.^[2]

He was instrumental in several major changes to how patents were issued and how intellectual property is treated. Federico also served for many years as the Patent Office's unofficial historian and editor of the "Journal of the Patent Office Society"". Some of his most well known contributions to the field of mathematics focused on the study of perfect squares and the writings of Descartes.

Federico is credited for providing the quotation underlying the scope of patentable subject matter under United States law when he testified before a House subcommittee in 1951 that "under section 101 a person may have invented a machine or manufacture, which may include anything under the sun that is made by man." This testimony was later quoted by the United States Supreme Court when the Court held in 1980 that living organisms were proper subject matter for patents.

Bibliography

Mathematics

• Vector Differential Geometry of Curves, By Pasquale Joseph Federico, Published by George Washington University, 1925
• "Descartes on polyhedra: a study of the De solidorum elementis," By Pasquale Joseph Federico. Edition: illustrated, Published by Springer, 1982 ISBN 0387907602, 9780387907604

Patent Office

• "The First Patent Act," By Pasquale Joseph Federico, Journal of the Patent Office Society 14:237-252 (April 1932)
• "Statutory Disclaimers in Patent Law," By Pasquale Joseph Federico, Published by P. Pearlman, 1935
• "Operation of the Patent Act of 1790," By Pasquale Joseph Federico, Journal of the Patent Office Society 18:237-251 (April 1936)
• "A Fragment of Texas History", By P.J. Federico and J.R. Nunn, Journal of the Patent Office Society 18:407-410 (1936)
• "Outline of the History of the United States Patent Office," By P.J. Federico, Volume 18, Journal of the Patent Office Society, 251 (1936).
• "Treaties Between the United States and Other Countries Relating to Trademarks," By Pasquale Joseph Federico, Published 1949
• "Distribution of Patents Issued to Corporations (1939-55): Study of the Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-fourth Congress, Second Session, Pursuant to S. Res. 167," By Pasquale Joseph Federico, United States Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights, United States Patent Office, Published by U. S. Govt. Print. Off., 1957
• "Opposition and Revocation Proceedings in Patent Cases: Study of the Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-fourth Congress, Second Session, Pursuant to S. Res. 167," By Pasquale Joseph Federico, United States Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights

Published by U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1957

• "Renewal Fees and Other Patent Fees in Foreign Countries: Study of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-fifth Congress, Second Session, Pursuant to S. Res. 236," By Pasquale Joseph Federico, United States Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights, Published by U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1958

References