Patent Certificate: D. P. Wagner, Medication Dispensing Device
date: label: date made
content: 1964-08-04
name: label: issued to
content: Wagner, David P.
label: maker
content: Patent Office
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: David P. Wagner received this patent (number 3,143,207) for a “medication dispensing means” on August 4, 1964. Wagner was prompted to invent the device when he and his wife had trouble remembering if she had taken her daily birth control pill. The patent covered a variety of uses for a device that “aids the taking of a medication by an individual on an irregular schedule . . . readily synchronized with the menstrual cycle of the user . . . with an unmistakable visual indication as to whether the individual should take a pill . . . to dispense pills only one dose at a time . . . with the physical form of a novel device that can be reused indefinitely . . . in a case indistinguishable from a lady’s cosmetic ‘compact’ and adapted to be carried among the personal effects of a lady in a purse without giving a visible clew [sic] as to matters which are no concerns of others.”
label: Description (Brief)
content: Wagner’s patent covered both a circular design and a rectangular calendar design. It addressed three big issues with the packaging of the Pill: discretion, compliance, and reusability. Wagner tried to sell his patent to Ortho and Searle and was rebuffed by both. Later, when Ortho introduced the DialPak, Wagner successfully defended his patent, and Ortho paid him $10,000 not to sue and a small fee for every DialPak produced afterwards.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Wagner also negotiated licensing agreements with Searle, UpJohn, Eli Lilly, and Mead Johnson. Over the life of his patent, Wagner estimated he netted about $130,000.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Wagner donated his patent certificate, patent models, original drawings, licensing agreements, and correspondence to the Smithsonian in 1995.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
topic: label: Subject
content: Birth Control/Contraception
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Biological Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Health & Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of David P. Wagner
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1995.0057.08
label: catalog number
content: 1995.0057.08
label: accession number
content: 1995.0057
label: patent number
content: 3143207
objectType: label: Object Name
content: patent certificate
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 30.5 cm x 20.3 cm; 12 in x 8 in