Presidents' Day 2020: Presidential Patents Beyond Lincoln

While it is appropriate for patent lawyers to acknowledge Abraham Lincoln on Presidents Day (he is, after all, the only president to ever receive a patent) other presidents have be made their mark in patents as well.

In April 1994, near the end of an MTV forum on youth and violence, a 17-year-old high school student from Potomac, Maryland, famously asked President Clinton, "The world is dying to know — is it boxers or briefs?" President Clinton's answer — "usually briefs" — sparked considerable discussion at the time.

A few years later, while the boxers v. briefs debate continued, Robert Wald of Toluca Lake, California, filed a patent application on Male Boxer Shorts with Integrated Male Briefs, which eventually...