Beatty, 2015

• Edward Beatty. Globalization and Technological Capabilities: Evidence from Mexico’s Patent Records ca. 1870-1911. Estudios de Economía. Vol. 42 - Nº 2, Diciembre 2015. Pp. 45-65, (Globalización y capacidades tecnológicas: evidencia de los registros de patentes de México ca. 1870-1911)

From the abstract: The study finds that imported technology stimulated patenting by Mexicans, but patenting increased more in the North Atlantic countries. Mexican inventors usually patented in fields distant from the core technical advances on the global frontier, and often focused on activities that were more entrepreneurial than technical. Technological capabilities were relatively "scarce in Mexico and local technicians had few opportunities to engage with and learn from imported know-how."

• "“Technology” is here taken to be the knowledge and capabilities (“know-how”) embodied in (1) tools, machinery and other tangible hardware, (2) people, and (3) print materials. Imports of all these were great in the 1870-1911 period.
• "new patent laws in 1890 and 1903 did not offer local technicians the kinds of formal opportunities to engage foreign invention and to legally protect their contributions that were found in the patent laws of many other late developers (Bazant, 1993; Beatty, 2001)." (p48)
• "Mexico’s Secretaría de Fomento issued about 14,000 patents from the middle of the nineteenth century to 1911; the vast majority of these issued over the last two decades of this period. However, the files housed in the “Patentes y Marcas” collection in the Archivo General de la Nación contain documentation on less than two thousand of this total (Soberanis, 1989). Using the patent notices printed in the annual and monthly publications of the Secretaría de Fomento, in the Gaceta Oficial de la Nación (before October, 1903), and in the Gaceta de Patentes y Marcas (after October, 1903) I have compiled a comprehensive digital database of the roughly 14,000 patents issued by Mexico through the long nineteenth century." (p49) (and see fnote 6)
• "For sources and further discussion see Beatty (2002) and Beatty and Sáiz (2007). Note that the database is now available online and he is friendly about helping use it and fixing it: Edward Beatty, “Mexico Patent Database 1840-1910,” University of Notre Dame: doi:10.7274/R0K64G4F
• There were fewer than 5 patents a year on average until the 1870s. "applications grew ten-fold between 1880 and 1890, and ten-fold again by 1905, reaching a 1907 peak that would not be reached and sustained again until the 1950s." (p49)
• "Roughly 10,000 patents [were granted] to foreign applicants compared to about 4,000 to Mexicans [in this period], mostly between 1890 and 1910. (p49)
• The fraction granted to foreigners rose over time, to 80% around 1900. Similar proportions are observed in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and other late developing countries (Beatty, Pineda, and Sáiz, 2015). After 1890, Mexican patent law treated patent applications equally across countries-of-origin. Almost 90% of global patents came from the U.S., Great Britain, France, Germany, and Belgium; see Figure 2). Firms would often take multiple foreign patents as they invested and sold products in foreign countries. (p49)
• Introduction of large-scale glass blowing machines, cigarette rolling machines, and refining plants are helpful examples (p51-58)
• Glass blowing: "The manufacture of glass bottles . . . was revolutionized with acquisition of automated glass bottle blowing machinery". "In 1903, Michael Owens of the Libbey Glass Company in Toledo Ohio patented the world’s first fully automated glass bottle blowing machine." It was far more efficient than prior methods. "[T]hose gathered for its first public demonstration were reportedly 'thunderstruck.'" "A newly organized Toledo Glass Company followed Owens’ initial US patents with applications in Europe and, still in 1903, patents #3904 and #3271 in Mexico." Mexicans like others shifted toward buying bottled beer. Mexican breweries raced to acquire rights to the Owens system from Toledo Glass. (The details are interesting.) In "September 1905 the owners of the Cervecería Chihuahua had a deal with Toledo glass" though it took till 1912 to get it going. (pp 51-55)
• "The cigarette industry expanded dramatically with the introduction of large scale cigarette rolling machines in the 1890s"
• "Silver and gold mining [boomed] with the adoption of industrial-scale cyaniding plants to refine ores" around 1900.
• Patent subclasses within "Glass & glass bottles" for Mexican patents, 1870-1910: A. Glass manufacture; B. Bottle manufacture; C. Bottle design; D. Bottle capping; E. Other. (p. 55, table 1)
• Patent subclasses within "Tobacco and tobacco products" for Mexican patents, 1870-1910: A. Tobacco treatment; B. Cigarette & cigar manufacturing; C. Cigarette packaging; D. Cigarette paper; E. Matches; F. Other. (p. 57, table 2)
• ... there are more notes to take. The article is snapshotted on the Internet Archive too: [1]

Original title	Globalization and Technological Capabilities: Evidence from Mexico’s Patent Records ca. 1870-1911
Simple title	Mexico’s Patent Records ca. 1870-1911
Authors	Edward Beatty
Date	2015
Countries	MX
Languages	en
Keywords	patents, Mexico, JEL F69, JEL N76, JEL O14, JEL O34
Journal	Estudios de Economía
Related to aircraft?	0
Page count	21
Word count
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