Patents, or inventions, fall under the category of intellectual property. The term patent commonly refers to the rights granted to a person responsible for discovering or inventing any new and useful composition, process, machine, article of manufacture, or useful improvement. In 1790, as part of the Constitution, Congress enacted the first U.S. patent laws. George Washington signed the First United States Patent Grant on July 31, 1790. The patent examiner was Thomas Jefferson. Samuel Hopkins, of Vermont, received the first U.S. intellectual property patent for his new method of making Potash. Potash was an industrial chemical used in making soap, glass and fertilizers, among other things. This patent set back Hopkins four dollars. Between 1790 and 1836, practically 10,000 U.S. patents were granted. None of these patents were given numbers. They were just referred to by name and date. This all changed when the Patent Act of July 4, 1836 was passed. From that point forward all patents were numbered.