Secrets for sale? Innovation and the nature of knowledge in an early industrial district: the Potteries, 1750-1851

Joseph Lane

Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History

Abstract: This paper investigates innovation and knowledge in the North Staffordshire Potteries during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It evaluates new empirical evidence of formal and informal patterns of knowledge creation and dissemination in order to highlight tensions between forms of open knowledge sharing and the appropriation of returns to innovative activity. By presenting new patent data it shows that formal protection was not a widespread strategy in the industry. It uses patent specifications to determine what specific types of knowledge were, and could be, patented in the district, and by whom. A range of sources are used to demonstrate evidence of innovation and knowledge appropriation outside of the patent system. The paper identifies distinct types of knowledge in the industry and shows how differences in these led to a range of strategies being employed by potters, with the role of secrecy highlighted as a particularly prevalent and effective strategy.

Keywords: Industrial Revolution; Intellectual Property; Patents; Innovation; Earthenware; Industrial District; Technology; Knowledge (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 L61 N63 N73 N91 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2018-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-cse, nep-his, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-law, nep-sbm and nep-ure
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/89386/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:wpaper:89386

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History LSE, Dept. of Economic History Houghton Street London, WC2A 2AE, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager on behalf of EH Dept. ().