Donges and Streb, 2023

• Alexander Donges and Jochen Streb. 2023. Patent law and technical progress. Chapter 10 of An Economic History of the First German Unification, edited by Ulrich Pfister and Nikolaus Wolf. London: Taylor & Francis. 25 pages, referred to as pp 1-25 here since I don't see the book's page numbering. doi: 10.4324/9781003283430-12

From the abstract: From 1800-1850 the various German states introduced patent systems, which varied meaningfully. The Prussian patent system was based on a royal decree issued in 1815. "In the Constitution of the North German Confederation of 1867, Prussia insisted that granting patents" be done in a unified federal shared system, not separately by the states. The unified German Patent Law of 1877 drew from patenting practices of the states. Lehmann-Hasemeyer and Streb showed that companies with patents were disproportionately represented on the Berlin stock exchange. After 1877, it is possible to compare patenting activities in the unified system across the different German regions.

Notes from a proof

• The unified German patent law was dated 25 May 1877, some time after German unification in 1871. There were ~10 years of complicated back and forth as the states worked out how to centralize this; for some details read this article, but it is not central to early aero and I'll skip most of that.
• Murmann (2003) argues that the absence of patent protection earlier had helped the German chemical industry get started. (Comment to G. Restrepo). Schiff (1971) claims similarly that Switz and Netherlands industrialized rapidly because of no patent rules.
• The Prussian patent system was based on a royal decree of 1815 (per Donges and Selger, 2020). It required every patent application to be evaluated by a "technical commission." and the decision on approval then went to officials in the ministry of the Interior, and later to the Ministry of Trade. In practice this meant a patent application was held to high standards. Patent application fees were low. (Heggen, 1975)) (p5)
• Other German states then defined patents in their own jurisdictions by various laws and decrees, dated thus: Bavaria, 1825 ; Baden, 1827 ; Wurttemberg, 1828 ; Saxony 1828 ; Hanover 1847 ; Electorate of Hesse 1852 ; Grand Duchy of Hesse 1857. Some small principalities de facto followed the principle/rules of the larger neighboring ones. Others including "the three Hanseatic cities" did not grant patents at all. (p5-6)
• Patents per kapita differed a lot across the German states, mostly for arbitrary administrative reasons -- e.g. in the 1860s Prussia granted 3.6 patents per year per million inhabitants, but the less-developed Bavaria granted 20. (p6) Table 10.1 compares these states to Saxony and Baden for each of several decades on this measure.
• The states varied and changed over time on whether they had registration or examination type systems; for some details (notably Bavaria and Saxony) see Donges and Selgert 2019a. (and p6)
• The Zollverein agreement of 1842 includes some minimal patent recognition across the borders.
• Proposals for harmonized recognition of granted patents across states were considered but "Prussian proponents of a restrictive patent policy were unable to compromise with" the advocates of less restrictive approvals from Saxony and the southern states. (p7)
• There were negotiations associated with the 1867 Constitution of the North German Confederation, a big step toward the 1871 unification (Sources: [1] [2]), and Prussia's Bismarck pushed patent-granting to become a federal responsibility in that Confederation, partly perhaps because Bismarcked wanted to fully abolish patent protection?! (Did Bismarck want that?) phrasing and timing not fully clear; anyway business people objected and it didn't happen. (Seckelmann, 2015, p49). The Constitution of the new German Empire of 1871 adopts the relevant provisions from this North German Confederation of 1866-71. (p7) (H
• And in 1871-77 there was pressure from other countries to harmonize with their practices. (Again see Seckelmann) (p8)
• Before that, Bavaria and Saxony had registration systems without comprehensive technical novelty examinations, apparently similar to the French system of the time -- perhaps since the Napoleonic invasion? (p9)
• Burhop (2010) estimates that 8% of patents granted in the German Empire period were sold ("changed owner") at some point.
• Firms, especially large ones, filed a larger and larger share of German patents over the 19th century (p11)
• Foreign patent filers were discriminated against in various ways but less so after the 1860s (p16-17)
• Foreigners had perhaps 10% of long-lived German patents in 1877, but 30% in the mid-1880s. (Long-lived meaning they were renewed at a fee cost after a few years, a measure explored by Streb et al extensively) In the 1910s the foreign-held portion of US patents was only 10%. (p17)
• Germany joins the 1883 Paris convention but only in 1903. (p17)
• Fees for German patents in this period are discussed on pp 19-20. The relevant currency is the Thaler.
• Biblio includes Schiff, 1971, Industrialization without national patents; M. Seckelmann, 2006, Industrialisierung, Internationalisierung und Patenrecht im Deutschen Reich, 1891-1914; Seckelmann, 2015 ; Tom Nicholas, 2010, "The role of inependent invention in US technological development, 1880-1930" ; Tom Nicholas, 2011, "Indepndent invention during the rise of the corporate economy in Britain and Japan", Nuvolari and Vasta, 2019, "Patenting the Risorgimento: economic integration and the formation of the Italian patent system (1855-1872)"; Richter and Streb, 2011, "Catching-up and falling behind: knowledge spillover from American to German machine tool makers" ;
• Received with thanks to Aleksandra Dul.

Original title	Patent law and technical progress
Simple title	Patent law and technical progress in Germany
Authors	Alexander Donges, Jochen Streb
Date	2023
Countries	DE
Languages	en
Keywords	patents, Germany, German principalities
Journal	Taylor & Francis
Related to aircraft?	0
Page count	25
Word count
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