Copyright And Patents

In the United States, copyright and patent law are explicitly anticipated in Article I, section 8, clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which assigns to Congress the power "to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."

"Science" and "useful arts" were understood somewhat differently in the 18th Century than they might be today. "Science," in the parlance of the era, had a meaning closer to "knowledge"¹; the "useful arts" were what we might now call "technology."² Accordingly, the references to "science" and "writings" underpin the present copyright law; the references to "useful arts" and "discoveries" underpin the present patent law.