The global rise of patent expertise in the late nineteenth century

David Pretel ()
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David Pretel: Centro de Estudios Históricos, El Colegio de México, http://ceh.colmex.mx/

No 31, Working Papers from Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Cambridge

Abstract: This paper examines the rise of various forms of patent expertise over the course of the second industrialisation. The essential insight here is that patent agents and lawyers, as well as consultant engineers, became, in the late 19th century, critical actors in the production and transmission of patent rights and patented technologies within and among societies. This paper considers three main themes. First, the global institutionalisation of patent agents during the late nineteenth century and their growing centrality in several national systems. Second, the transnational patenting networks created during the 1880s, particularly the activities of associations of patent agents and their impact on the making of an international patent system. Third, the controversial role of patent experts as agents of corporate globalism. The most important point remains that agents’ powers, and their many services to multinational corporations, had enduring consequences on the structure of knowledge property worldwide.

Keywords: Patents; expertise; globalisation; technology; corporations; networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B1 F55 N70 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-01-26, Revised 2018-01-26
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hpe, nep-ino and nep-ipr
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Published in Cambridge Working Paper in Economic & Social History, No. 31

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