The Directory
Every Patent, Explained
The complete collection of 107 landmark patents in plain English. Search by name or number, or filter by field, decade, and status.
All Patents
107explained · search & filter
US 8697359 · 2014 · Massachusetts Institute of Technology
How to Use CRISPR-Cas9 to Edit Genes in Human Cells
US 4683195 · 1987 · Cetus Corp
How to Make Many Copies of a Specific DNA Segment
US 7657849 · 2010 · Apple Inc
How the iPhone's Slide-to-Unlock Gesture Worked
US 4405829 · 1983 · Massachusetts Institute of Technology
How RSA Public-Key Encryption Secures Digital Messages
US 7479949 · 2009 · Apple Inc
How Touchscreens Tell the Difference Between Your Finger Gestures
US 5347632 · 1994 · Prodigy Services Co
How Early Online Services Delivered Applications Using Networked 'Objects'
US 10452978 · 2019 · Google LLC
How AI Models Use Self-Attention to Understand Language and Sequences
US 6285999 · 2001 · Leland Stanford Junior University
How Websites Get Ranked by Counting Links and Their Importance
US 7469381 · 2008 · Apple Inc
How Touchscreens Make Documents Bounce When You Scroll Too Far
US 5960411 · 1999 · Amazon com Inc
How Amazon's One-Click Online Ordering System Works
US 4063220 · 1977 · Xerox Corp
How Computers Share a Network Cable Without Crashing
US 4200770 · 1980 · Leland Stanford Junior University
How Computers Agree on a Secret Code Without Meeting First
US 5825352 · 1998 · Logitech Inc
How Touchpads Detect Two Fingers for Mouse Clicks and Drags
US 4558302 · 1985 · Sperry Corp
How Computers Shrink Data Using a Dynamic Dictionary
US 5487069 · 1996 · Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization CSIRO
How Early Wi-Fi Handled Bouncing Signals Indoors
US 4009052 · 1977 · Exxon Research and Engineering Co
How Early Rechargeable Lithium Batteries Used Layered Materials
US 4237224 · 1980 · Leland Stanford Junior University
How to Make Hybrid DNA and Grow It in Microbes
US 6266649 · 2001 · Amazon com Inc
How Online Stores Suggest 'You Might Also Like' Products
US 4736866 · 1988 · Harvard University
OncoMouse — The First Patented Animal, Built to Get Cancer
US 4723129 · 1988 · Canon Inc
Inkjet Printing — How a Hot Wire Discovered the Bubble Jet
US 3789832 · 1974
MRI — The Imaging Machine That Detects Cancer Without Radiation
US 5774670 · 1998 · Netscape Communications Corp
The HTTP Cookie — How Websites Remember Who You Are
US 6370526 · 2002 · International Business Machines Corp
Google AdWords — The Auction System That Made Search Profitable
US 4166152 · 1979 · Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co
The Post-it Note Adhesive — Invented as a Failure That Stuck Around
US 8448084 · 2013 · Twitter Inc
Pull Down to Refresh — The Gesture in Every Mobile App
US 5191573 · 1993
How to Buy and Download Digital Music or Movies Over a Phone Line
US 4302518 · 1981
The Battery Cathode That Powers Every Electric Vehicle and Smartphone
US 2130948 · 1938 · EI Du Pont de Nemours and Co
Nylon — The First Synthetic Fiber, Invented at DuPont
US 2981877 · 1961 · Fairchild Semiconductor Corp
The IC Manufacturing Method That Made Silicon Valley Possible
US 2569347 · 1951 · Bell Telephone Laboratories Inc
The Transistor — The Invention That Made the Digital Age Possible
US 5838906 · 1998 · University of California San Diego UCSD
Microsoft's Browser Patent — At the Center of the Biggest Antitrust Case in Tech
US 3387286 · 1968 · International Business Machines Corp
DRAM — The Memory in Every Computer, Phone, and Server
US 3541541 · 1970 · Stanford Research Institute
The Computer Mouse — Invented 30 Years Before Anyone Cared
US 2717437 · 1955 · Velcro SA
Velcro — The Hook-and-Loop Fastener Inspired by a Burr
US 3671542 · 1972 · EI Du Pont de Nemours and Co
Kevlar — The Fiber Five Times Stronger Than Steel, Invented by Accident
US 4136359 · 1979 · Apple Computer Inc
The Apple II — The First Personal Computer That Came With Color
US 3005282 · 1961 · Interlego AG
How LEGO Bricks Connect and Stay Together
US 2292387 · 1942
Hedy Lamarr's Secret Radio System for Torpedo Guidance
US 223898 · 1880
Edison's First Practical Electric Light Bulb
US 2612994 · 1952
The Barcode — The Lines on Every Product in Every Store
US 4531203 · 1985 · Tokyo Shibaura Electric Co Ltd
NAND Flash — The Memory in Every SSD, iPhone, and USB Drive
US 3138743 · 1964 · Texas Instruments Inc
The Integrated Circuit — Putting the Whole Transistor Radio on One Chip
US 821393 · 1906
How the Wright Brothers' First Flying Machine Controlled Flight
US 2780765 · 1957 · Bell Telephone Laboratories Inc
The First Solar Cell That Could Actually Power Something
US 3789410 · 1974 · US Department of Navy
Measuring Distance to a Radio Emitter from a Moving Vehicle
US 174465 · 1876
Bell's 1876 Patent for Sending Voice Over Wires
US 2495429 · 1950 · Raytheon Manufacturing Co
The Microwave Oven — Invented When a Radar Engineer Melted a Chocolate Bar
US 1773980 · 1930 · TELEVISION LAB Inc
Electronic Television — Invented at 21 by a Farm Boy Who Drew It in a Potato Field
US 9824092 · 2017 · Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC
How Cloud Services Store Data Faster and More Efficiently
US 10456769 · 2019 · Bgi Shenzhen & Bgi Shenzhen Co Ltd
Preparing Tiny DNA Samples for Genetic Sequencing
US 10113167 · 2018 · Universitaet Wien
How Two RNA Pieces Guide a Protein to Edit DNA
US 8278036 · 2012 · University of Pennsylvania Penn
How Modified RNA Teaches Cells to Make New Proteins
US 4302536 · 1981
How to Measure Substances in Blood Using Colored Proteins
US 4677614 · 1987 · Process Systems Inc
Keeping a Data Loop Running When the Main Controller Fails
US 5903495 · 1999 · Toshiba Corp
How Flash Memory Stores Multiple Bits in One Cell
US 4914603 · 1990 · GTE Laboratories Inc
How an Early Neural Network Learned Faster with a Special Variable
US 9965705 · 2018 · Baidu USA LLC
AI System for Answering Questions About Pictures Using Attention
US 10702600 · 2020 · ModernaTx Inc
How Moderna's mRNA Vaccine for Betacoronaviruses Works
US 10824959 · 2020 · Amazon Technologies Inc
How AI Models Can Explain Their Decisions with Simple Rules
US 7664715 · 2010 · Caterpillar Japan Ltd
Compressing Construction Machine Data Using Neural Networks for Diagnostics
US 5401560 · 1995 · Norton Co
Making Strong, Stretchy Non-Slip Surfaces with E-Beam Cured Urethane
US 6362826 · 2002 · Intel Corp
How Computers Speed Up Graphics by Managing Memory
US 7663607 · 2010 · Apple Inc
How Touchscreens Detect Multiple Finger Presses at Once
US 9839649 · 2017 · Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc
Designing Better siRNA Molecules for Gene Silencing
US 1219881 · 1917 · Hookless Fastener Co
The Zipper — The Fastener That Replaced a Thousand Buttons
US 382280 · 1888
Tesla's AC Induction Motor: How Alternating Current Powers the World
US 5013088 · 1991 · Data Tech Services Inc
Tamper-Evident Label That Breaks Apart When Removed
US 11727263 · 2023 · Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
How AI Learns to Write Better Sentences Using Feedback
US 8046721 · 2011 · Apple Inc
How the iPhone's Slide-to-Unlock Gesture Works
US 10155945 · 2018 · Nitto Denko Corp
How to Make Tiny Bubbles for Delivering Medicine
US 7512773 · 2009 · Nvidia Corp
How Computer Graphics Pipelines Switch Tasks Faster
US 5946647 · 1999 · Apple Computer Inc
How Computers Find and Act on Data Patterns
US 11295225 · 2022 · D Wave Systems Inc
How D-Wave Quantum Computers Reduce Noise During Calculations
US 10607134 · 2020
AI System Learns Avatar Actions from Game Objects
US 10559047 · 2020 · NCR Corp
How Store Staff Can Use Phones to Close Customer Checks
US 5920821 · 1999 · Bell Atlantic Network Services Inc
How Cell Phones Find the Best Service Provider Automatically
US 5440632 · 1995 · Scientific Atlanta LLC
How Cable Boxes Got Smarter by Downloading Updates
US 5561631 · 1996 · Xilinx Inc
Checking if Programmable Logic Device Memory is Erased
US 5346778 · 1994 · Energy Partners Inc
Fuel Cell System for Vehicles with Oxygen Boost
US 4660166 · 1987 · California Institute of Technology
Hopfield Network for Solving Problems and Storing Memories
US 5455030 · 1995 · Enzon Labs Inc
Making Antibody-Like Proteins in a Single Chain
US 10410117 · 2019 · BrainChip Inc
How AI Learns and Shares Skills Like a Brain
US 10540437 · 2020
System for Creating and Sending Consumer Dispute Letters
US 7865399 · 2011 · Google LLC
How a Central Broker Handles Online Shopping Cart Transactions
US 6476836 · 2002 · Ricoh Co Ltd
Printer Feature for Saving Ink or Toner
US 4081538 · 1978
New Drugs to Reduce Sodium in the Body
US 7543038 · 2009 · International Business Machines Corp
How to Keep Using Apps When Your Internet Drops
US 4064521 · 1977 · RCA Corp
How Amorphous Silicon Made Thin-Film Solar Cells Possible
US 5657390 · 1997 · Netscape Communications Corp
How Netscape's SSL Encrypted Web Connections Work
US 7844915 · 2010 · Apple Inc
How Touchscreens Tell Scrolls from Pinches and Make Content Bounce
US 10423875 · 2019
Using a Camera to Monitor and Control Neural Networks
US 5682513 · 1997 · International Business Machines Corp
How IBM Linked Data Updates for Disaster Recovery
US 10282665 · 2019 · Sony Corp
How a Computer Learns to Pick the Best Action
US 7352772 · 2008 · Lenovo Singapore Pte Ltd
How Wi-Fi Routers Stop Slow Devices From Ruining Fast Connections
US 7577616 · 2009
How a Mobile Phone Can Securely Verify Payments Using a Temporary Code
US 9379564 · 2016 · Nissan Motor Co Ltd
How Electric Cars Safely Pause Charging When You Touch the Plug
US 6122658 · 2000 · Microsoft Corp
Microsoft's Method for Serving Localized Web Content
US 6033785 · 2000 · Central Glass Co Ltd
How Car Windows Keep Inside Private Without Blocking the Driver's View
US 9182882 · 2015 · Autodesk Inc
Drawing 3D Shapes on a Touchscreen with Gestures
US 8311950 · 2012 · Google LLC
How Social Networks Guess Your Interests from Who Views What
US 6630507 · 2003 · US Department of Health and Human Services
Cannabinoids for Treating Diseases Caused by Oxidative Stress
US 8683378 · 2014 · Apple Inc
How Scrolling Changes Speed Based on Input
US 8914752 · 2014 · Snapchat Inc
How Snapchat Messages Disappear After You Touch Them
US 12564871 · 2026 · ASM IP HOLDING BV
A Fixture for Cleaning Showerheads with Multiple Separate Chambers
US 12471982 · 2025 · CILAG GMBH INT
Surgical Tool That Combines Energy Treatment and Stapling
US 12324579 · 2025 · CILAG GMBH INT
Surgical Stapler Battery Health Check During Operation
US 11918209 · 2024 · CILAG GMBH INT
Real-Time Surgical Instrument Status on Live Video During Operations
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