Design Patent
Brief Overview: History of Patents
The patents systems created by the United States is the most successful system in the world. It still takes the US Patent Office about 12 to 18 months to review a patent application after it has been filed. You should learn a little about the origins of the US patent system so if you are waiting for the Patent Offices’ decision concerning your invention, you can do this during your waiting period.
The first European patents were issued in the Republic of Venice in the late 15h century, but these early Venetian patents did not result in the creation of a patent system.
This patent system that originated in England in the 15th century, was a 20-year monopoly given to John of Utynam for the use of a new method to make stained glass, by King Henry VI . The first patent in English history was Utynam’s and it gave inventors rights to earning from their inventions.
Later English developments formed the foundation of both present-day English and US patent laws. Before the Statute of Monopolies Law was passed in 1624, monopolies used to be granted by English royalty who tended to use patents to give them to people who gave money to the royal treasury, and it was possible for patentees to get monopolies for products that were not new. The Statute of Monopolies law stated that patents would only be granted to new inventions and that monopolies were contrary to English laws. The law also established time limitations to patents. Early in the 18th century, the English Court required that inventions be described in writing before patents could be granted. The basis on which modern US patent law rests on consists of the English patent laws that were active during the Colonial period.
It did not take long, however, before the tables were turned; US Patent Law soon affected the development of English Patent Laws. Inventors can look to a clause in the first Article of the US Constitution, which pertains to Arts and Science, for protection in maintaining exclusive rights to their inventions. Prior to 1790, the King of England had been the sole official owner of all inventions created by the colonists.
The US Congress accepted the first US Patent Statute in 1790; and then in 1836 a patent law passed providing the first patent system worldwide. An important feature of this new system is the reviewing of all patent applications to verify that the inventions are lawful and new. The statute of 1836 established the US Patent Office employing expert workers to assess patent applications. Applicants were accorded the right to contest the decisions of the Patent Office and a further right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Among the many significant differences between the US Patent Law and the patent laws of England and European countries at the time was that it did not aim at exacting a price for granting patents; nor was it ever an instrument for raising revenues for the state. Patent application fees in the US were (and are also) reasonably priced. They are used only to cover the administrative expenses of the US Patent Office. In England, by contrast, exorbitant fees limited access to patents to a privileged few. Patent costs in England were four times the average income in 1860. Patent fees were a source of revenues for the Crown and the Court, and inventors had to follow complicated administrative procedures before they could obtain patents.
Concerns in the UK about increasing competition from the United States finally caused changes to be introduced into English patent law. During the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition, England finally realized that the United States as well as by other European nations, represented a threat to its initial industrial supremacy. This began the initial revision process in 1852, in which Parliament approved changes to the original patent system for the first time in nearly 200 years under the Patent Law Amendment Act. Obviously influenced by the US Patent Law, the English Patent Law of 1852 lowered patent application fees and created the Office of the Commissioners of Patents for Inventions.
US Patent Law was designed to encourage inventiveness. To permit the use of their inventions unlike many European countries, the United States does not require patentees. Nevertheless, although there have been many independent inventors in the United States since Samuel Hopkins received the first US patent in 1790, the most valuable patents today are owned by large corporations who have the means to exploit them.
The debate between the advantages of protecting free inventors and the disadvantages of monopoly is as important now as it was 400 years ago when the English Parliament passed the law called the Statute of Monopolies in the year 1624.
Utility Patents vs Design Patents