Showing creative side of the state
Sure, times are tough in Connecticut. We’re desperate for job growth. We finally got a state budget after some bare-knuckled bargaining, and when the recovery arrives, the experts claim we’ll likely lag behind the national growth.
So when a report from the Global Intellectual Property Center about Connecticut’s creative economy crosses the desk, we take note.
After all, Connecticut can point to some pretty impressive creative types, according to the report, like David Bushnell, the Old Saybrook inventor who created the first submarine, called the “Turtle,” during the Revolution. Or Charles Goodyear, who created a process in New Haven that allowed rubber to keep its elasticity. In 1844 he patented his discovery, which made rubber waterproof and able to withstand the rigors of winter. With a name like Goodyear, you know the rest of the story.
And let’s not forget that Noah Webster was a Hartford resident. He’s best known for the modern dictionary, first published in 1828. Connecticut’s own Mary Dixon Kies earned the first patent given to a woman for a straw-weaving process, which, by the way, helped boost the hat industry (which, by the way, was a major industry for the city of Danbury before men abandoned their fedoras).
The point behind the global center’s enthusiasm for such Connecticut creativity is that intellectual property – intangible things like a copyright, or a trademark, or a patent or software – deserves to be respected and protected. Our inventors, scientists and artists need their innovations protected. In many cases, those innovations led to jobs, and business growth and the accumulation of wealth.
