Brief Overview: History of Patents
The United States Patent system is one of the most successful in the world. After filing your Patent you can expect a wait of 12 to 18 months before you hear whether it has been approved or not. If you are waiting for a Patent Office decision concerning your invention, you may want to use part of the waiting period to learn a little about the origins of the US patent system.
Early Venetian patents did not result in the creation of a patent system but they were the first European patents that were issued in the Republic of Venice in the late 15h century. The patent system began in 15th century England, when King Henry VI granted a 20 year monopoly to John of Utynam for his new way of making stained glass. The first patent in English history was Utynam’s and it gave inventors rights to earning from their inventions.
The foundation of both present-day English and US patent laws were formed by later English developments. Before the Statute of Monopolies Law was passed in 1624, monopolies used to be granted by English royalty who tended to use patents to give them to people who gave money to the royal treasury, and it was possible for patentees to get monopolies for products that were not new. The Statute of Monopolies law stated that patents would only be granted to new inventions and that monopolies were contrary to English laws. Patents also have time limitations by law. Early in the 18th century, the English Court required that inventions be described in writing before patents could be granted. The basis on which modern US patent law rests on consists of the English patent laws that were active during the Colonial period.
It did not take long, however, before the tables were turned; US Patent Law soon affected the development of English Patent Laws. Inventors can look to a clause in the first Article of the US Constitution, which pertains to Arts and Science, for protection in maintaining exclusive rights to their inventions. Prior to 1790, the King of England had been the sole official owner of all inventions created by the colonists.
In April 1790, the US Congress passed the first US patent statute, and the 1836 Patent Law created the first modern patent system in the world. An important feature of this new system is the reviewing of all patent applications to verify that the inventions are lawful and new. The statute of 1836 established the US Patent Office employing expert workers to assess patent applications. Now applicants have the right to go against decisions of the Patent Office even being able to take the appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
At the time an elemental difference among many when it comes to the difference between the US Patent Law and patent laws of England or other European countries was that they don’t aim at exacting prices for granting patents. They also have never been an instrument for raising revenue. In the US there were patent application fees — are also — reasonably priced. They are used only to cover the administrative expenses of the US Patent Office. To patents to a privileged few in England, by contrast, exorbitant fees limited access. Patent costs in England were four times the average income in 1860. Patent fees were a source of revenues for the Crown and the Court, and inventors had to follow complicated administrative procedures before they could obtain patents.
English concerns about facing growing US competition finally introduced changes into the English patent laws. In 1851, England realized the US was a threat in regards to industrial supremacy. The Patent Law Amendment Act the first real adjustment of the patent system in two centuries and lasted well into the twentieth century that this realization signaled the start of a revision process that began in 1852 when Parliment approved. Obviously influenced by the US Patent Law, the English Patent Law of 1852 lowered patent application fees and created the Office of the Commissioners of Patents for Inventions.
US Patent Law was designed to encourage inventiveness. To permit the use of their inventions unlike many European countries, the United States does not require patentees. Most of the valuable patents in the United States are owned by your larger corporations who in return exploit them for all they are worth. There have been several independent inventors in America, starting with Samuel Hopkis, who received the very first US patent in early 1790.
The debate between the advantages of protecting free inventors and the disadvantages of monopoly is as important now as it was 400 years ago when the English Parliament passed the law called the Statute of Monopolies in the year 1624.
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