10 | 07 | 2014

National Day of Nikola Tesla - Day of Science, Technology and Innovation, July 10

Nikola Tesla, one of the world's greatest scientists and inventors of the 19th and 20th century, was born on 10 July 1856th in the village of Smiljan (Ličko-Senjska County). By the decision of the Croatian Parliament, July 10 has been declared a National day of Nikola Tesla, the day of science, technology and innovation.
On the occasion of the National Day of Nikola Tesla, State Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Croatian on its official web site gives site visitors the collection of patent documents, which makes the selection of the total number of Tesla's patents with respect to the integrity of collections of national patents and original language documents.
U.S. Patents of Nikola Tesla are covering his most important inventions and are therefore presented as a complete collection. As a complement available British and Canadian patent documents are presented.
This collection contains the 112 U.S. patents, 17 British and six Canadian patents of Nikola Tesla.
Review of the Tesla’s patents was made according to the dates of their application in patent offices. Such a chronological display shows the dynamics of Tesla's work, which is reflected through patent applications, as well as an overview of the technical areas he was interested and working on, during the years.
First patent application Nikola Tesla applied in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in March 1885.. After that he went on to apply and obtain patents for his inventions.
Numerous Tesla's inventions that was invented before going to the United States are not protected by a patent, as well as inventions for which Tesla, due to certain circumstances, didn't apply for the patent protection.
Different sources say different (total) number of Tesla's patents.
The territorial principle according to which it is necessary to obtain patent protection in every country where the inventor wants to protect his invention causes the possibility that for the the same invention there are more patents in various countries.
Therefore, in determining the number of patents should be distinguished whether it is counted based on the number of inventions that Tesla has patented (the first patent) or the total number of patents generated in different countries.
Older patent documents like those from Tesla time are not entirely available, and it is impossible to accurately determine the total number of its patents as not to reach the facsimile of majority of them.

For additional information about the collection of Nikola Tesla's patent documents contact akademija@dziv.hr.