Austria-Hungary

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Map of Austro-Hungarian Monarchical holdings with precise dilineation of internal boundaries
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1914)
Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen in 1914


Introduction

AH is an abbreviation in this wiki referring to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and AT for Austria and HU for Hungary. Beyond patenting, there is the general idea that emperor of Austria was also the king of Hungary, this being significant, but retaining the principle of Hungary having a distinct identity. Nevertheless, there were some joint establishments, and all under Hapsburg rule, regardless of how diplomatically this fact was handled. We come across "Cs. és Kir.", for instance, on some Hungarian patents.[1] This is "Császári és Királyi", in Magyar, equal to German "K. u. K." (kaiserliche und königliche), these being standardized acronyms having to do with "imperial and royal" entities within the Austro-Hungarian establishment. There is some variability in terms of how the breadth of this Empire, and its nature as such, is handled in the standard administrative usage of other nations. We have American patents locating Vienna, for instance, as within "Austria-Hungary", making no mention of "Empire".[2] We have British patents locating Vienna, for instance, as within the "Empire of Austria", making no mention of Hungary.[3]

The Austro-Hungarian Empire had a "privileges" office which issued patents until about 1897, and then it had two patent offices, one in Austria and one in Hungary. There might have been one in Bosnia-Herzegovina after 1878, when it joined the Empire.

Many modern nations hold territory and-or are composed entirely of territory which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The attached map, while putting emphasis on the Kingdom of Hungary, along with territory to Hungary's southwest, also indicates the per se Austrian sovereignty over lands north of that greater Hungary. It may or may not be that various smaller kingdoms did some storing of patents, with or without the establishments of offices dedicated to the purpose.

For our purposes, it is important to see the two major "halves" of the Empire. Each had its own patent office, publishing in its own language, and each of the two was highly international in terms of patents filed also abroad, with references made to and from those filed in Austria and those filed in Hungary. Neither of the two key Austro-Hungarian component nations seems to have played a preponderant role in the cosmopolitanism of the other, in terms of patents and innovation. Smaller kingdoms within this empire retained varying degrees of national identity, though seemingly not patent offices of their own, on the one hand, and Hungary itself seems to have included slightly more territory than it does today. We have garnered a fair bulk of patents in which the inventor is thought to have Romanian(RO) nationality, for instance. "AH" as such may serve some purpose. Very precise locations have helped us with corporate and individual inventor connections and establishments of identity across an inter-linguistic range of sources both analogue and digital.

This empire, as such, was not very old, at all, Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, and perhaps its constituent nations lagged somewhat behind nations further west in terms of industrialization and administrative formalization. For more on the general context see Austria-Hungary on English Wikipedia. All indications, including the size of the Kingdom of Hungary as it was then constituted, and the name of the Austro-Hungarian Empire itself, suggest that these two royal-imperial-national entities led the other constituent nations in Europe as it was evolving at the time. A third element within the empire, the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, was "an autonomous region under the Hungarian crown".[4] We may only tentatively presume that the most directly relevant patent office was that of Hungary. Croatia comes up in our data on occasion. There are cases in which an inventor location is situated in present day Croatia, though it was situated within the Kingdom of Hungary during the period on which we are focused. We do have a few cases in which an inventor's nationality is given as Croatian.

Austro-Hungarian Empire (1880)
Austro-Hungarian Empire (1890)
Austro-Hungarian Empire (1914)

Patenting in the Austro-Hungarian empire

"The protection of intellectual property in Hungary [was] established in 1896 by virtue of Article 23 of Act XXXVII of 1895 on Patents for Inventions. Before this year there was invention protection by the grace of the king without numbering. The patenting based on subjective rights was started in 1895 together [with] Austria (. . . the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy) and in 1896 the numbering started: 5802.[5]

World War I was politically, historically and administratively key to post-imperial disintegration. Hungary may have been more administratively deferential to Austria prior to 1896. (In terms of patent offices, this may be a matter of Austria per se.) We hope to find more on the other Eastern component nations of the Empire.

Patent laws of 1852, 1867, and 1897-98

Starting in 1852, this was the law on "privileges" which were analogous or equivalent to patents. https://alex.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/alex?aid=rgb&datum=1852&page=903&size=45

In 1867 the AH Empire decentralizes into two pieces, the green and brown pieces on this map.

It may be that the privileges law continued to 1897, and that there was one central office managing it. Or maybe the Hungarian office started then.

Starting 1897 there were two patent offices, one in Vienna and one in Budapest. The Vienna one handled greater Austria, the brown part on the map, and the Budapest one handled the Hungarian Empire, in the green. Three main laws were passed for the Austrian part:

It was dated January 28, 1897

Thanks to Aleksandra Dul and her colleague, economic historian Michael Pammer of the University of Linz, for doing this research and sending these laws.[6]

She thinks there must have been a closely similar and analogous Hungarian law.

This book, possibly never scanned, is in libraries in Europe. It commemorates 100 years of the Austrian patent office: Österreichisches Patentamt (Hrsg.): 100 Jahre Österreichisches Patentamt. 1899-1999 Festschrift. 1. Auflage. Österreichisches Patentamt, Wien 1999. Aka: Austrian Patent Office (Ed.): 100 Years of the Austrian Patent Office. 1899-1999 Festschrift. 1st edition. Austrian Patent Office, Vienna 1999.

Here is one from the 60th anniversary: 60 Jahre Österreichisches Patentamt : 1899 - 1959 There will be some libraries that have it, somewhere, in Austria, or perhaps USPTO.

See also

Patent reports

Many of the inventors and patents which we may call "Austro-Hungarian" may turn up in other reports, particularly as the establishment of separate and well-refined patent offices in Austria and Hungary precedes the industrial bulk of the data we are collecting. Aside from the history articulated above, the designation "AH" serves as a side note in some odd cases.

Patents filed in Austria-Hungary

Patents filed by Austro-Hungarians

References