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Brief Overview: History of Patents
One of the most successful patent systems in the world is the United States patent system. Still, it does take the US Patent Office between 12 and 18 months to review a patent application after you have filed it. You should learn a little about the origins of the US patent system so if you are waiting for the Patent Offices’ decision concerning your invention, you can do this during your waiting period.
The first European patents were issued in the Republic of Venice in the late 15h century, but these early Venetian patents did not result in the creation of a patent system.
This patent system that originated in England in the 15th century, was a 20-year monopoly given to John of Utynam for the use of a new method to make stained glass, by King Henry VI . The first patent in English history was Utynam’s and it gave inventors rights to earning from their inventions.
Later English developments built the foundation of both English and US patent laws. English royalty often used patents to grant trade and manufacturing monopolies to people who donated money to the royal treasury, and patentees could obtain monopolies for manufactures that were not new, before English Parliament passed the Statute of Monopolies law in 1624. The Monopolies Statute declared that patents could be issued solely to new inventions and stated that monopolies contradicted laws in England. 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. Since these English patent laws were in force during the Colonial period, they comprise the basic principles of modern US patent law.
Before long the legal system of the United States began, in turn, to influence British 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.
The US Congress accepted the first US Patent Statute in 1790; and then in 1836 a patent law passed providing the first patent system worldwide. The principal feature of this system is that all patent applications are reviewed to ascertain that the inventions in question conform to the law and to ensure that they are new. The 1836 statute created the US Patent Office where technically qualified employees examine 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.
Among the many significant differences between the US Patent Law and the patent laws of England and European countries at the time was that it did not aim at exacting a price for granting patents; nor was it ever an instrument for raising revenues for the state. In the US there were patent application fees — are also — affordable. They are used only to cover the administrative expenses of the US Patent Office. In England, by contrast, exorbitant fees limited access to patents to a privileged few. 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.
Faced with growing concerns over US competition by the English, English patent laws introduced some changes. In 1851, England realized the US was a threat in regards to industrial supremacy. This realization signaled the start of a revision process that began in 1852 when Parliament approved the Patent Law Amendment Act the first real adjustment of the patent system in two centuries and lasted well into the twentieth century. 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 first created to encourage inventiveness. To permit the use of their inventions unlike many European countries, the United States does not require patentees. Nevertheless, although there have been many independent inventors in the United States since Samuel Hopkins received the first US patent in 1790, the most valuable patents today are owned by large corporations who have the means to exploit them.
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.
The Crystal Palace – Joseph paxton