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ARTICLE · 22 JUNE 2009

Patent Law Harmonization - A Historical Perspective

Ladas & Parry
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In medieval times, the grant of exclusive rights "monopolies" by the sovereign had been a convenient way in which the sovereign could raise money without the need to resort to taxation.

United StatesIntellectual Property

Article By John Richards1

The European Background of the Patent System

In medieval times, the grant of exclusive rights "monopolies" by the sovereign had been a convenient way in which the sovereign could raise money without the need to resort to taxation. Such grants were common in many European countries and were typically made by way of "letters patent".2 Some of these, for example in mining regions or in the production of certain textiles seem to have had a relation to innovations. Although there seems to have been an earlier law directed specifically at inventions relating to the manufacture of silk, the first general law providing for the grant of exclusive rights for limited periods to the makers of inventions in general as a deliberate act of economic policy was probably in Venice in 1474. It does not seem coincidental that this was during a long war between Venice and the Turks during which Venice lost most of its trading empire in the Eastern

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