Today, guest historian Cathy Patterson with a story about patents.
The University of Houston presents this series about the machines
that make our civilization run, and the people
whose ingenuity created them.
In 1449, King Henry VI of England granted John of
Utynam a 20-year monopoly to make stained glass. John had a new method,
not yet known in England. John was a master glass-maker from Flanders.
He came to England to make the windows for Eton College. The crown issued
him Letters Patent, sealed with the King's Great Seal, to guarantee John's
privileges. So John of Utynam received the first recorded patent in England,
home to the the oldest continuous patent tradition in the world.
John's was probably not the first patent ever issued -- Venice
issued patents to glass-makers in the early 1420s. But John of Utynam's successful
quest to protect his methods gave birth to a system -- a system that gave people
official sanction to enjoy the economic benefits of their own ingenuity.
The purpose of such patents was not at first very clear. Government saw them
as a tool for promoting invention, and thus, trade and commerce in general.
But entrepreneurs also exploited the patent system simply to gain economic
advantage. Patents of invention -- which everyone agreed benefited the
commonwealth -- were jumbled in with patents of monopoly of all sorts -- for
making saltpeter or gold and silver thread.
Some patentees obtained monopolies for manufactures or trades that were not new.
Royal favorites regularly gained patents in return for timely donations to the
royal treasury. And the crown was also known to refuse patents for inventions
considered unseemly -- Sir John Harington's water closet design
failed to gain a patent in 1596 for just this reason. Those willing to curry favor
at Court and exploit economic gain navigated the patent system most successfully.
The abuse of monopolistic patents provoked a public outcry by the early 17th century.
Under pressure, King James I revoked patents and monopolies, declaring that
"monopolies are things contrary to our laws". But he made an important exception
-- he allowed patents for
"projects of new invention so they be not contrary to the law, nor mischievous to the state."
Parliament later codified this into law in the 1624 Statute of Monopolies, which also
established time limitations: patents would be granted for
"14 years or under ... to the true and first inventor." This statute established
foundations for patent law that are still in use today. Invention can be protected,
but the public interest must be considered.
England's history tells us that patents have always been tricky things. Their purpose
is at once intellectual and economic. They can be open to abuse, as well as to legal
and ethical interpretation. Whether for stained glass windows or water closets or
genetically modified mice, patents protect invention. But the noble purpose of promoting
ingenuity is haunted by the specter of monopoly. The answer to the question
"Should it be patented?" has never been patently obvious.
I'm Cathy Patterson, at the University of Houston,
where we're interested in the way inventive minds
Cathy Patterson is Associate Professor of History and Associate Dean of the College of
Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Houston. She is author of Urban
Patronage in Early modern England: Corporate Boroughs, the Landed Elite, and the Crown, 1580-1640.
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999)
Many books deal with the history of patents and patent offices. One standard text is
Arthur Gomme, Patents of Invention: Origins and Growth of the Patent System in Britain.
(London: Longmans Green and Co., 1946).
Christine MacLeod, Inventing the Industrial Revolution: The English Patent System,
1660-1800. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988) offers a useful introduction
to the early history of the patent system.
The Great Seal of Queen Elizabeth I, which would have been used on letters patent,
courtesy of the National Archives:
See this National Archives site.
The Engines of Our Ingenuity is
Copyright © 1988-2005 by John H.