Pasquale ("Pat") Joseph Federico (March 25, 1902 – January 2, 1982[1]) was a lifelong mathematician and longtime high-ranking official of the United States Patent Office.
About 1910 the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he gained a bachelor's degree in physics at Case Institute of Technology in 1923.
[7] Federico is credited for providing the quotation said to underlie the scope of patentable subject matter under United States law when he testified before a House subcommittee in 1951 that "under section 101 a person may have invented a machine or manufacture, which may include anything under the sun that is made by man,"[8] so long as it satisfies the requirements of the patent statute.
It was my privilege and greatly to my benefit to come to know Pat some thirty-four years ago, to have worked with him on a couple of lengthy legislative projects, and to have remained in touch with him throughout the rest of his fruitful life.
[3] Previous award recipients include Stephen Kunin, Nicholas Godici, Paul Michel, Donald Banner, Charles E. Van Horn, Pauline Newman, C. Marshall Dann, Herbert Wamsley, Helen Wilson Nies, Mike Kirk, Tom Arnold, Howard T. Markey, Rene D. Tegtmeyer, Isaac Fleischmann, Anne Chasser, Raymond Chen, John Whealan, Mark Lemley, Bernard J. Knight, Teresa Stanek Rea, Randall Rader and Deborah Cohn.