An article from the New York Times relays the story of two patent attorneys who have embarked on a quest to help fill the missing archives of the USPTO (the Patent and Trademark office). And, they have met with some success, handing over information to the Office about at least 10 historic (and lost) patents.

The article describes that about 10,000 patents issued in the early years of the Republic (1790-1836) were lost in a fire at the Patent and Trademark Office and that these patents (known as the "X Patents", because of the X used in their numbering scheme) are still mostly missing from the archives.