History of United States patent law

The history of United States patent law started even before the U.S. Constitution was adopted, with some state-specific patent laws. The history spans over more than three centuries.

The oldest form of a patent was seen in Medieval times. Medieval rulers would grant an exclusive right to a "monopoly." This was sometimes an attempt to raise funds without taxing, although taxes were still imposed. In England such grants took the form of “letters patent”, issued by the sovereign to inventors who petitioned and were approved: a grant of 1331 to John Kempe and his Company is the earliest authenticated instance of a royal grant made with the avowed purpose of instructing the English in a new industry.

In 1474, in Venice, the first known patent law that granted inventors exclusive rights to their inventions was passed as a result of an economic policy. Thereafter, patents were a formal means of granting and restricting monopolies in Europe. The Venice statute had all the basic elements of a modern patent system—a requirement of novelty, proof of usefulness, and a requirement that the patentee describe and explain the invention.

In 1624, in England, the Statute of Monopolies was passed primarily to restrict the power of the sovereign in granting monopolies. The Statute of Monopolies, for the first time in history, defined the following: that inventions had to be “new” to attain a monopoly, and that a monopoly would be granted only for a limited period of time (in this case 14 years.) These aspects have carried forward and helped shape the United States Patent Law. The Statute of Monopolies attempted to reinforce the advantages to society of new inventions; however, a French Patent Law, established in 1791, focused on the inventor and emphasized the invention as the inventor's property. The US Patent Law today adopts both streams of thought; however, the concept of monopolies and patents, in the US, initiated with the British thought of advantages to society.

In America in the early colonial period, there were no general laws providing for the issuing of patents. However, people who invented new products could appeal to the colonial governments, which could grant them the exclusive commercial right to the products. The earliest of such rights granted in the colonies was in the state of Massachusetts in 1641. The Massachusetts General Court gave Samuel Winslow an exclusive right to utilize a new process of making salt for 10 years. The case is unofficially known of as the first “patent” in America.

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