The History of Patents
/The-History-of-Patents.html
A brief history of patents as a concept, the development of patent law and intellectual property rights
Patent History of Patent John Locke James Watt intellectual property rights IPR
 var bookmarkurl=window location href var bookmarktitle= function bookmark { if document all window external addfavorite bookmarkurl,bookmarktitle } article feature back | print | bookmark a history of patents from ancient greece to modern battles the history of patents i&rsquo ve been looking into the history of patents and was surprised to discover that the idea was cooked up by the greeks &ndash almost literally yes, there is documentary evidence which suggests that over 2,500 years ago it was possible to patent a culinary dish this was in the greek city of sybaris &ndash the place that gave the name to sybarites &ndash lovers of luxury it was another two thousand years after the greeks before patents starting to crystallize according to the english publication &lsquo law quarterly review 1896 &rsquo , a certain john kempe and his company was granted a letters patent by king edward iii in 1331, whereas the first known italian patent was granted by the republic of florence in 1421 to a filippo brunelleschi although italy as a coherent political entity did not then exist so, what exactly did these patents cover and for how long were they granted &bull training services - kempe and company for 1 year &bull a barge with lifting gear goods - brunelleschi for 3 years &bull stained glass process - henry vi of england to john of utynam for 20 years we can see that the scope was quite wide, although by this time cooking recipes had been dropped, although it&rsquo s worth noting that some food production processes can be patented even today modern patent law as we understand it didn&rsquo t really start taking shape until the late 15th century let&rsquo s take a look now at some of the key events in modern development and the timeline modern development modern patent law has its roots in the city state of venice, with the so-called venetian statute of 1474 the venetian patents revolved mainly around glass making, and the migration of glassmakers to other countries led to pressure for patent protection in the countries where those artisans settled there were other craft guilds which also enjoyed patent protection from the 15th century on, the law and concept of patents underwent almost continuous refinement here&rsquo s a timeline of the most notable developments &bull 1555 king henry ii of france initiated the publication of descriptions of patents after patent expiry &bull 1624 the english statute of monopolies specified that patents could only be granted for so-called &lsquo projects of new invention&rsquo &bull 1641 the first patent was granted in north america by the massachusetts general court &bull 1718 in england, james puckle s patent for a machine gun was one of the first to satisfy the requirement that the &lsquo patentee must by an instrument in writing describe and ascertain the nature of the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed&rsquo &ndash that is, a specification &bull 1729 the first digest of patent &lsquo specifications&rsquo was published in france later digests were published occasionally, up to 60 years after expiry of the patent &bull 1790 the first patent act of the u s congress was passed &bull 1791 the modern french patent system was enacted during the french revolution what about the legal aspects &ndash people and companies fighting to protect their patents if there&rsquo s a law, there&rsquo s an argument, for sure notable early patent battles the history of patents is riddled with legal disputes involving the leading inventors of the day through to huge $billion patent battles today, for example apple versus samsung what were the big patent battles of the early days there was a legal battle over james watt s 1796 patent application for his invention of the steam engine the result was that an important principle was established in that &lsquo valid patents could be granted for improvements in a known machine&rsquo uk intellectual property office this legal spat also determined that it was possible to patent an idea or principle, on the basis of limited disclosure whether on paper or concealed within a practical device the new legal framework for patents cascaded internationally to countries with similar legal antecedents &ndash principally those which had a past as or were currently united kingdom colonies the lawyers were kept very busy making money as the industrial revolution gathered pace in the united kingdom and a huge flow of patents were granted what lawyers call &lsquo case law&rsquo developed quickly but a major shift in the concept of patents was imminent this change was so fundamental as to deserve being called a paradigm shift a paradigm shift a patent was seen as a way of making money through exploiting an invention and the definition of &lsquo invention&rsquo was stretched almost criminally in some cases then, towards the end of the 18th century a paradigm shift occurred the novel concept of an &lsquo intellectual property right&rsquo &lsquo ipr&rsquo was developed by an outstanding philosopher, john locke this led to further changes in english patent law it was a powerful concept but the &lsquo law of unintended consequences&rsquo came into play innovation through continual improvement during a patent&rsquo s life was prevented and competition was stifled as the lawyers got busy once again to be fair, this was due to inventors seeking to protect their inventions in the light of the changed laws, but more change was afoot a fight started over the fundamental philosophy of patents, led, surprisingly, by some of the leading inventors of the time a challenge to the philosophy of patent law locke&rsquo s concept of ipr led in the mid 19thcentury to a widespread debate and active campaign for abolition of patent laws the campaign was founded on the principle of active competition and free trade concepts the movement gained momentum across europe but ultimately failed nevertheless some important points had been scored as a result changes were made to the legal framework with the patent law amendment act of 1852 since then, patent law has continued to evolve, and international conventions have been established to achieve some sort of consistency of the law however, modern research and technology is throwing up new challenges and the future of patent law promises to be very interesting what of the future the 20th century saw changes arising from the growth of the pharmaceutical sector and other technologies the conceptual basis of patents is under challenge as the human genome is explored and the issue of patenting genes is debated questions revolve around whether discovery of a gene is an invention and whether gene patents encourage or stifle research the debate is certain to continue as the clinical use of genomics is further expanded and the history timeline will continue to record significant changes &copy 2015 james marinero james marinero march 7, 2015 james marinero writes thrillers revolving around the sea, espionage, action and technology in the 21st century ↑ back to top