USPTO to rename public search tool after pioneering black patent examiner Henry Baker

USPTO names public search tool after pioneering black patent examiner

The USPTO announced at the "Black Innovation and Entrepreneurship" project that it will rename the public search tool after Henry E. Baker (1857-1928). Baker was a pioneering black patent examiner and public servant who compiled the first list of African American patentees as a weapon against widespread racism.

Henry E. Baker was an attorney, assistant patent examiner, and civil rights activist who spent more than 30 years compiling lists of black patentees. The list, still used by historians today, is both a treasure trove of black inventors’ vast contributions to humankind’s technological advancement and a powerful record of one man’s public pursuit of racial equality.