Wartime patenting

Researchers examine patenting in wartime.

One issue is how inventors -- potential patentees -- respond to the situation. One researcher summarizes findings:

. . . analysing all of Britain’s patents during the Industrial Revolution period[,] I find war led to an increase in economically valuable patenting and this increase was permanent. In particular, war led to increases in military patenting. Finally, invasion fears discouraged patenting behaviour for economically valuable inventions. Overall, my results suggest war, when it was going well for British forces, stimulated the Industrial Revolution. . . . [W]ar coincided with an acceleration in the patenting of military and economically valuable inventions. This paper is closely related to Khan (2015), who observes patenting behaviour during the US Civil war. She finds that US “great inventors” (who held multiple patents) switched into the market for military technologies. The present study finds a different effect: British inventors who held multiple patents increased only their patenting of economically valuable inventions.

See also Billington, 2019.