Adams, John N. --- "History of the Patent System" [2009] ELECD 238; in Takenka, Toshiko (ed), "Patent Law and Theory" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: Patent Law and Theory

Editor(s): Takenka, Toshiko

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845424138

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: History of the Patent System

Author(s): Adams, John N.

Number of pages: 31

Extract:

3 History of the patent system
John N. Adams



Introduction
Unlike trademarks, which can develop even in comparatively primitive soci-
eties in which particular makers' marks can acquire goodwill as people come
to rely on them,1 or copyright, which seems to represent a fairly basic instinct
about the relationship of an author to his or her works,2 patents seem to be a
creation of advanced societies. Although it has sometimes been asserted that
the earliest form of patents might have existed in 500 BC in Sybaris, Greece,
where monopolies were granted to new dishes for a period of one year, and
that the patents may also have existed in the Roman Empire where guilds
existed, the only reliable historical evidence is that the system originated in
Venice in the fifteenth century. A few patents had already been granted prior
to 1474 when Venice promulgated its patent statute, probably the first modern
patent law.

We have among us men of great genius, apt to invent and discover ingenious
devices; and in view of the grandeur and virtue of our city, more such men come to
us every day from divers parts. Now, if provision were made for the works and
devices discovered by such persons, so that others who may see them could not
build them and take the inventor's honour away, more men would then apply their
genius, would discover, and would build devices of great utility and benefit to our
commonwealth. Therefore:

Be it enacted that, ...