History of Patent Law
Contemporary patent law can be traced back to 1474, when the Republic of Venice enacted the following decree: "all new and inventive devices, once put into practice, had to be revealed to the Republic in order to obtain the right to prevent others from using them."In the United States, the first Congress wrote the first American Patent Act of 1790, and the first patent was issued under this Act on July 31, 1790, to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont for a new method of making Potash, an industrial chemical used in making soap and other substances.
Effects of Patent Law
Patent law gives the patent holder the exclusive right to make, use, and sell the patented invention for a limited period of time. Patent law today is outlined by the U.S. Patent Act, Title 35 U.S.C. (see below), enacted by Congress under its Constitutional grant of authority to secure for limited times to inventors the exclusive right to their inventions. In exchange, the inventor must give an immediate and complete disclosure of the patented information to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Once the term of patent protection has ended (about twenty years), the invention becomes public domain.
TITLE 35—PATENTS
- PART I UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
- PART II PATENTABILITY OF INVENTIONS AND GRANT OF PATENTS
- PART III PATENTS AND PROTECTION OF PATENT RIGHTS
- PART IV PATENT COOPERATION TREATY
