This lesson explores how the early U.S. patent system was designed to encourage invention and how observers connected it to the country’s economic development. It also examines the system’s broad access to patent rights and its role in helping inventors bring ideas into economic life.
The U.S. patent system began in 1790. The chapter presents it as one of the institutions that helped stimulate invention and economic growth. Just two months after the first patent law was signed, Thomas Jefferson remarked that it had “given a spring to invention beyond my conception.”
All flashcards
What did Thomas Jefferson mean when he said the first U.S. patent law gave invention a “spring”?
He meant that the law energized inventive activity more than he had expected.
What was distinctive about the U.S. patent system, according to Lamoreaux and Sokoloff?
It offered broad access to property rights in new technological knowledge and facilitated trade in patented technologies.
How could patents help an inventor without much capital?
The inventor could transfer or license technology to others with resources to develop or commercialize it.
What is a division of labor in technological development?
It is the separation of specialized roles, such as inventing, financing, manufacturing, and commercializing a technology.
What did the reported survey find about patents and venture financing?
Sixty-seven percent of surveyed entrepreneurs reported that patents were valuable in obtaining venture financing.
Quiz questions
What is the difference between a patent application and a patent grant?Answer: An application requests a patent; a grant awards one after evaluation.
In 2014, how many patent applications did the USPTO receive, and how many patents did it grant?Answer: It received 578,802 applications and granted 300,678 patents.
What change did Britain and other European countries later make to their patent institutions?Answer: They modified them to make them more like the American system.
What did James Truslow Adams emphasize in his 1931 description of the American Dream?Answer: People's hope to develop fully without barriers favoring particular classes.
What caution applies to the historical links between patenting increases and industrial change?Answer: Coinciding trends do not prove that one industry or patent rule alone caused each increase.