Elijah J. McCoy Midwest Regional U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

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Elijah McCoy, born in Ontario to parents who had escaped slavery in Kentucky, trained as a mechanical engineer in Scotland before settling in the Detroit area, where he spent decades inventing and patenting devices for automatically lubricating steam engines, ultimately holding 57 US patents. His lubricating systems worked so reliably that buyers reportedly began asking for 'the real McCoy' to make sure they were getting his genuine device rather than an inferior copy, a phrase that entered the American language. In 2012 the US Patent and Trademark Office opened its very first satellite office outside Washington, D.C., in the historic Stroh Building at 300 River Place on Detroit's riverfront, and named it in McCoy's honor as the Elijah J. McCoy Midwest Regional Office. The office serves inventors across the Midwest and stands as a rare federal tribute to a Black inventor whose name became shorthand for authenticity itself.

1. Elijah McCoy held 57 US patents, mostly for lubricating devices
2. His reliable products reportedly inspired the phrase 'the real McCoy'
3. Opened 2012 as the USPTO's first regional office outside Washington, D.C.
4. Located in the historic Stroh Building on Detroit's riverfront
5. Still an active federal office today