A History of Intellectual Property from 1545 to 1787 26 Journal of the Patent Office Society 1944

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26 J. Pat. Off. Soc'y 711 (1944)
A History of Intellectual Property from 1545 to 1787

handle is hein.journals/jpatos26 and id is 711 raw text is: A History of Intellectual Property
From 1545 to 1787
By FRANK D. PRAGER
Contents
I. In tro d u c tio n ................................................................................................. ........ 7 1 1
2. The Beginnings in Venice ................................712
3. Patents under the Mercantile System ........................ 720
4. Intellectual Property in France .............................................................. 728
5. Intellectual P roperty in A m erica .......... : ...................................................... 730
6. Documents: Venice 1469-1545 .................................. 75.0
F ran ce 1551-1790 ........................................................................ 7 5 1
America 1672-1813 ............................ 758
1. Introduction.
Many modern writers are inclined to consider the Eng-
lish Statute of Monopolies as the only important ante-
Cedent of existing patent laws'. Howhver, we find occas-
ional remarks that the patent laws of France, along with
those of England and the United States, are branches of 'a
single system of jurisprudence2, and that they all go back
to a system of privileges, developed in Venice3.
When investigating this, we actually. find that, for
centuries before the American and French Revolutions of
1787 and 1789, France had a patent law, .at least as well
developed as the parallel English law4, although indus-
trially, England was much more successful than France;
and We can trace the French and English systems into one
that grew up in the Republic of-Venice, between 1450 and
155W.
1 For instance: Robinson on Patents, 1890, vol. I, p. 15; in Germany:
M. Wassermann, D. Pat. R., 1910, p. 5; in Italy: E. Piola-Caselli, in Dig.
Ital., under Privative Industr., 1913, p. 8.
2W. Phillips, Law of Patents, 1837, p. 27.
3J. Kohler, Lehrbuch d. Pat. R., 1908, p. 2; E. Luzzato, Tratt. Gen. d.
Privative Industr., 1914, vol. I, p. 20-27.
4 E. Blanc, Contrefacon. 1838; Isambert, Anc. Lois Fr.; J. Isor6, in Revue
Hist. de Dr. Fr. et Etr., 1937, p. 94; Malapert, in Journal des Economistes,
1878; J.-B. Montfalcon, Hist. Mon. de la Ville de Lyon, vol. 2, 1866:
E. Pouillet, Dessins, 1903; Recueil des Edits et Decl., 1776; A. Renouard,
Brevets, 1825.
5Archivio Veneto; Atti e Mem. del R. Ist. Veneto; Horatio F. Brown,
The Venetian Printing Press, 1891; B. Cecchetti, Vetraria Veneziana, 1874;
R. Fulin in Archivio Veneto, vol. 23, 1882; F. C. Lane, Venetian Ships
and Shipbuilders of the Renaissance, 1934; N. Stolfi, Prop. Lit. et Artist.,
1916; G. Zanetti, Dell' Origine di Alcune Arti Princ. appr. i Veneziani, 184Y.