Everything that can be invented has been invented

On July 19, 2010 in General

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This has been oft-repeated quote that has been unfortunately wrongfully attributed to former Commissioner of U.S. Patent Office Charles H. Duell.  Regardless as to who really stated this, does this statement hold true?  Is there some hidden fact behind this anecdotal mis-attribution?Indeed, tell any patent attorney about a patent that desperately requires  invalidation that ‘there aren’t any references that can be used to invalidate this’ or ‘there is an element of novelty here as I couldn’t find any reference pre-dating this patent,’ they are bound to come back with ‘KEEP LOOKING.’  Yes, if a cartoon was drawn of that scene, the attorney’s words would definitely be in capitals.  These attorneys are subtly hinting at the notion that things have been invented and patented, and hence, with careful and diligent search and analyses, any patent can be invalidated!  That is, there are no true inventions left to be made on this earth.However, the flip side of this coin would be the famous scientific wager made by Richard Feynman. According to wikipedia.org: “In 1959, Richard Feynman bet $1,000 that no one could construct a motor that would fit inside a cube that was 1/64 inches on a side.  He lost the bet when Bill McLellan, using amateur radio skills, constructed such a motor. Feynman paid up the bet, but went on record as saying that he was disappointed with the outcome because he had hoped his reward would stimulate some new fabrication technology, but McLellan’s motor used only existing techniques.  Physicist Philip Ball, in his article in Nature Materials, discusses this episode and concludes ‘Do we like Feynman always underestimate what our current technologies can achieve?’ “So, which is the truth?  All things have been invented?  Or we still haven’t realized the full potential of our existing technologies?  Many among us, including the author, believes in the latter.  How about you?

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