Public Collectors Patent Observations: Issue 2

The second in a series of three publications created by Public Collectors administrator Marc Fischer in response to a spreadsheet of over 34,000 patent applications by Los Angeles area inventors from 1976-2024. Each issue presents a series of findings, organized into playful categories. The contents of each issue are completely different.

From the introduction:

US Patent applications reduce the world of human-designed inventions to line drawings and words that fit on 8 ½ by 11 inch sheets of paper. There are three types of patents: utility patents (how an invention works), design patents (“the visual ornamental characteristics embodied in, or applied to, an article of manufacture”), and plant patents (for legally protecting a new species of plant). 

Perhaps because these drawings lack color, texture, and sometimes specificity beyond the inventions, I find myself projecting onto them, and filling in various details in my own way. Some of the drawings, particularly those with more than one person in them or that show a person in an interior setting, remind me of storyboard drawings that filmmakers create to plan their shots; none of the sensation is there, but if you’ve seen the end product or been in a similar kind of space you can imbue the sketch with all the missing details. Patent drawings feel like representations that meet us halfway there. Like drawings in a coloring book, they invite us to fill in missing qualities that might bring a page to life. I suspect this quality of having to finish the drawings informs the joy I get from looking at them. 

This publication series, Patent Observations, is the result of an invitation from curator Todd Lerew to participate in the exhibit No Prior Art: Illustrations of Invention at the Los Angeles Central Library (September 14, 2024 - May 11, 2025) as part of Getty’s regionwide initiative, PST ART: Art & Science Collide. Because No Prior Art is focused on inventions rather than designs, I have concentrated on utility patents by Los Angeles area inventors. The drawings that these inventors made or commissioned for their patents are what first made me excited to explore this material.  

Patent Observations is a serial publication by Public Collectors that explores patent applications submitted to the US government’s Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). With support from the Los Angeles Public Library and Library Foundation of Los Angeles, Patent Observations concentrates on the work of Los Angeles-based inventors. The Los Angeles Central Library is a member of the Patent and Trademark Resource Center Program and assists the USPTO in disseminating patent and trademark information to the public. Patent Observations extends from the earlier project and publication series, Library Excavations, which highlights overlooked and obscure materials from public library collections, particularly those that may be at risk of being discarded. 

Issue #2 includes these sections: Patent Drawings: An Introductions & Some Thoughts; Patent Drawing Colors & Materials; Hand, Hands, Fingers, Thumb; Musical Interlude; Child's Play, Ready to Wear; Health Soup & Grain Bar Hot Dog; Processing a Head; and an interview with artist and patent holder Michael Parker about his Steam Egg patent.

Each issue in this series is an extra beautiful production that is printed on as many as ten or eleven different paper stocks. These books will not be reprinted or widely distributed beyond Half Letter Press and the Central Library in Los Angeles so get this while you can!