The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced that it is opening a patent office in Detroit. The USPTO has announced that the office will open by July of 2012. The new office will be located at 300 River Place Dr., the former home to Parke-Davis Laboratories and the Stroh’s Brewery Headquarters.
The USPTO will allow inventors to patent and trademark their intellectual property. The new office will benefit Detroit by adding over 100 high-paying, high-skilled jobs in the first year alone. Additionally, the office is expected to lift Michigan’s innovation economy.
The new office is named after Elijah J. McCoy, an African American inventor from Ypsilanti, Michigan. McCoy was the son of two escaped slaves from Kentucky, who escaped using the Underground Railroad to Canada, where McCoy was born. After graduating from high school in Ypsilanti, McCoy moved to Scotland where he studied engineering. McCoy held 57 patents. His most well known invention was the oil drip cup, which continuously fed oil to steam engines. Allegedly, this invention was the inspiration for the phrase “the real McCoy.”
