Catalina Espinosa
Research expert covering society, economy, and politics for Europe and the EU
Patents in the United States
Since the turn of global power in the Second World War the United States has been known as the powerhouse of innovation, particularly in consumer products. The inventor鈥檚 tradition of course stretches much further back in time, and since that time patents have played an important role in the commercial success of such inventions. Alexander Graham Bell was not the only person seeking to create a device such as what we now know as the telephone. However, in 1876 he obtained the patent for an 鈥渁pparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically鈥. Without such a patent it may well have been that we would crediting another with the invention of the telephone today.
