In German-speaking nations, November 9, the birthday of glamorous Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr, is their "Inventors' Day" or Tag der Erfinder. Patent Attorney Stephen Albainy-Jenei explains at Patent Baristas in this week's Blawg Review.

Composer George Antheil and Lamarr submitted a patent application for a secret communication system in June 1941. On August 11, 1942, U.S. Patent 2,292,387 was granted to Antheil and “Hedy Kiesler Markey”, Lamarr’s married name at the time. This early version of frequency hopping used a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam.

Argentina marks Inventors' Day, their Día del Inventor, on September 29, the birthday of national hero Laszlo Biro, inventor of the ballpoint pen or, as many outside the US call it, a "biro".

Do any other countries celebrate inventors with a special day?

"Any girl can be glamorous," Hedy Lamarr once said. "All she has to do is stand still and look stupid." The film star belied her own apothegm by hiding a brilliant, inventive mind beneath her photogenic exterior. In 1942, at the height of her Hollywood career, she patented a frequency-switching system for torpedo guidance that was two decades ahead of its time.

We've still got a ways to go when it comes to removing gender stereotypes, but we've come a long way, baby. It's encouraging, today, to see fashion magazines recognize women for their brains, not just their beauty. This week, Glamour magazine named Google's Marissa Mayer a 2009 Woman of the Year.

“It’s pretty hard to overstate her impact,” says Google CEO Eric Schmidt. “She built the team that designs the products we all use.” With a wardrobe that’s strong on Oscar de la Renta and Armani, Mayer cuts a striking figure on the company campus. “When people think about computer science, they imagine people with pocket protectors and thick glasses who code all night,” Mayer jokes. “I do code all night! I am the stereotype, but I also break the stereotype.” Among her goals: to bring more women into technology and teach them to take chances. “Get in a bit over your head,” she says. “That’s how you grow and learn and stretch yourself.”

These are important life lessons for our children and, as the father of three young girls and an author of children's books that dispel gender stereotypes, I'll be telling stories about women like Marissa Mayer, Hedy Lamarr, and other famous women inventors. For our girls, these women are real-world superheroes.

The birthday of Hedy Lamarr, 9 November, was chosen as Inventor’s Day not because she was an ‘Edison’, but because the Austrian-born Hollywood diva ‘tried to realise her idea’. And oh what an idea it was – an early form of spread spectrum communications technology – key to wireless communication, even today. For those who can’t resist, here’s her US patent - US 2,292,387.

So let’s celebrate the spark of creativity, the spirit of innovation that keeps the world of IP and the wider world beyond such an exciting and ever-evolving space.

And next time the conversation turns to gender stereotypes, and girls in science, remember Hedy Lamarr and these women inventors who showed the world they can do anything.