projector (patent)
{{Short description|Original true inventor in US patent law}}
Projector is a 19th-century term in United States patent law meaning the original true inventor. "True inventor" at the time meant the first inventor to reduce an invention to practice.[https://books.google.com/books?id=mbkDAAAAQAAJ&q=projector&pg=PR9 Willard Phillips, The Law of Patents for Inventions: including the remedies and legal proceedings in relation to Patent Rights”, pp65 et seq. American Stationers’ Company, Boston, 1837]
As a synonym for promoter, e.g. in the phrase "railway projectors", the term was used in a derogatory fashion in a 1790 document. In that discussion of needed changes in the patent act, 'projector' described someone who overzealously promotes an invention.Frank D. Prager, "Proposals for the Patent Act of 1790", Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society, March 1954, vol XXXVI, No. 3, pp 157 et Seq.