In 1899, William Middlebrook, an American inventor, received the patent (US Patent 636,272) for a machine designed to massproduce paper clips. The Pro Se Assistance Program is dedicated to help independent inventors and small businesses meet their goal of protecting valuable intellectual property.To these main ends and objects my invention may be said to consist in a bent-wire paper clip composed of a single piece of wire bent. A Massachusetts inventor, Cornelius Brosnan, received a patent for a paper clip design in 1900. Each patent application has several forms that must be filled out and submitted. A list of these forms can be found here. Fay's invention in 1867, primarily intended for attaching tickets to fabric. Although there were a lot of attempts to make a clip that would hold papers, the first patent issued was in 1887. Samuel B. Fay won the first U.S. patent for a bent wire paper clip in 1867, but other inventors dreamed up similar ideas in Britain and Germany. In addition to the common paper clip, other clips have been proposed, such as disclosed in the accompanying prior art statement.