Researched
Patent System
Venice's statute of 1474 grants inventors a time-limited monopoly in return for disclosure: ideas become protected property and invention a business.
Open in the interactive tree →The Venetian Patent Statute of 1474 gave inventors ten years of exclusive rights for new devices. England's Statute of Monopolies (1624) and the US Patent Act (1790) turned this into a general system. Savery's steam patent of 1698, extended by Parliament, covered Newcomen's engine, and Watt's patent of 1769 (extended to 1800) let Boulton and Watt finance the steam engine's development.
Prerequisites
- State & Administration~3000 BC
- Codified Law~1754 BC