Hello lorenzen and thank you for your question,
You might be thinking of Henry J. Ellsworth Commissioner of the U.S.
Patent Office who is sometimes quoted as having said:
"Mankind," he declared, "has already achieved all of which it is
capable. There would be no more inventions requiring patents."
http://europa.spaceports.com/~fishbake/lpc/photo/photos.htm
There is no historical evidence that he actually said the above, what
he did actually say was:
"The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity
and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement
must end."
http://articles.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_3_27/ai_100755224
See:
"Jeffery found no evidence that any official or employee of the U.S.
Patent Office had ever resigned because he thought there was nothing
left to invent. However, Jeffery may have found a clue to the origin
of the myth. In his 1843 report to Congress, the then-commissioner of
the Patent Office, Henry L. Ellsworth, included the following comment:
"The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity
and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement
must end." As Jeffery shows, it's evident from the rest of that report
that Commissioner Ellsworth was simply using a bit of rhetorical
flourish to emphasize that the number of patents was growing at a
great rate. Far from considering inventions at an end, he outlined
areas in which he expected patent activity to increase, and it is
clear that he was making plans for the future."
http://articles.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_3_27/ai_100755224
Thank you for your question, and if you need any clarification of my
answer, do not hesitate to ask before rating my answer.
Very best regards
THX1138
Search strategy included:
"no more inventions"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&as_qdr=all&q=%22no+more+inventions%22 |
