Projector is a 19th-century term in United States patent law meaning the original true inventor.
"True inventor" at the time meant the first inventor to reduce an invention to practice.
[1] As a synonym for promoter, e.g. in the phrase "railway projectors", the term was used in a derogatory fashion in a 1790 document.
In that discussion of needed changes in the patent act, 'projector' described someone who overzealously promotes an invention.
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