Steinway Patents

The following is a chronological list of patents on inventions made at Steinway & Sons in New York City and in Hamburg, Germany. Patent numbers without a prefix denote United States utility patents. U.S. reissue patents, U.S. design patents and foreign patents are denoted respectively by the prefixes "Re.", "Des.", and the abbreviation of the country ("Ger." for Germany, "Brit." for Great Britain and "Can." for Canada). The only utility model or "petty patent" on the list is denoted by the prefix "Geb." for "Gebrauchsmuster", issued in Germany.

To facilitate understanding the historical relevance of these patents to the six (6) general categories of piano making, i.e., (i) the activator, (ii) the vibrator, (iii) the resonator, (iv) the case and frame, (v) designs, and (vi) manufacturing technology, the title of each patent is accompanied where appropriate by a brief summary of the invention defined in the claim(s).

• Patents Acquired from 1850 to 1874
• Patents Acquired from 1875 to 1899
• Patents Acquired from 1900 to 1924
• Patents Acquired from 1925 to 1949
• Patents Acquired from 1950 to 1974
• Patents Acquired from 1975 to Present

Patent information and formatting supplied courtesy of Charles E. Miller, JD of Pennie & Edmonds LLP.