The Venetian Patent Statute of March 19, 1474, established in the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

the first

statutory A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by l ...

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

system in Europe, and may be deemed to be the earliest codified patent system in the world. The Statute is written in old Venetian. It provided that patents might be granted for "any new and ingenious device, not previously made", provided it was useful.Kostylo, J. (2008) �
Commentary on the Venetian Statute on Industrial Brevets (1474)
, in Primary Sources on Copyright (1450–1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org By and large, these principles still remain the basic principles of patent law.

Significance

The dominant view among historians and legal scholars is that the Venetian Patent Act provides the legal foundation of the modern patent system.Mandich, Giulio. "Venetian Patents (1450-1550)." J. Pat. Off. Soc'y 30 (1948): 166 (translated by F.D. Prager). Meshbesher observing "the impact of the Venetian patent law and practice on the history of patent law has been studied by several authors and is well-recognized, hence the first ''patent statute'' uthor's emphasisis usually considered to be the one was enacted (''sic'') in the Republic of Venice in 1474". The most widely accepted translation of the old Venetian dialect original is as follows: One leading patent scholar also stating that "the international patent experience of nearly 500 years has merely brought amendments or improvements upon the solid core established in Renaissance Venice". Some historians question this dominant view and claim that the Venetian Patent Statute of 1474 "functioned primarily as a codification of prior customs nddid not introduce new principles. "Neither did it mark the beginnings of the modern patent system." According to Joanna Kostylo, " should best understood as declaratory instrument codifying existing general principles and customs of granting patent rights for innovations in Venice". Accordingly she states that the significance of the Venetian statute lies "in its broad and general character," in the sense that it attempted to "apply general rules to the granting of patents rather than conferring occasional individual favours (gratiae) in response to individual petitions." It is also significant that the "legislation focuse on protecting and rewarding individual inventors, in contrast to monopolies reserved to organized groups (

guilds A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...

)." This alternative view is hard to reconcile with the large shift in patenting activity observed after 1474. As observed by Allan Gomme, former librarian of the UK Patent Office, "there was, then, a regular practice of granting patents in Venice which began about 1475..". See also Statistics, below. The majority view remains that the Venetian Patent Statute marked a watershed moment and was indeed the first basis for a patent system, notwithstanding earlier isolated patents having been issued.

Statistics

Between 1474 and 1788, the

Venetian Senate The Senate ( vec, Senato), formally the ''Consiglio dei Pregadi'' or ''Rogati'' (, la, Consilium Rogatorum), was the main deliberative and legislative body of the Republic of Venice. Establishment The Venetian Senate was founded in 1229, or le ...

granted about 2000 patents: 28 between 1474 and 1500, 593 between 1500 and 1600, 605 between 1600 and 1700, and 670 between 1700 and 1788. Venetian patents were granted free of payment, "which explains their relatively high number".

References

External links

Venetian Statute on Industrial Brevets, Venice (1474)
Primary Sources on Copyright (1450–1900), Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge
Constitutionalizing Patents: From Venice to Philadelphia
1470s in law History of patent law Culture of the Republic of Venice 1474 establishments in Europe 15th-century establishments in the Republic of Venice

Significance

Statistics

See also

References

Further reading

External links