Do Legal Differences Matter? A Comparison of German Patent Law Regimes before 1877

Donges Alexander () and Selgert Felix ()
Additional contact information
Donges Alexander: Universität Mannheim, Abteilung Volkswirtschaftslehre, L7, 3-5. D-68131 Mannheim, Germany
Selgert Felix: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Abt. Verfassungs-, Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Konviktstraße 11, D-53113 Bonn, Germany

Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook, 2019, vol. 60, issue 1, 57-92

Abstract: In this article, we give an overview of the differences in German patent legislations between 1815 and 1876. German patent laws differed in particular with regard to the application and approval system, the treatment of foreign applicants, and patent fees. Differences in the former two categories provide an explanation why the number of patents was considerably lower in Prussia than in other states. While the number of Prussian patents per capita almost stagnated between 1840 and 1872, it increased in Baden, Bavaria and Saxony. Formal differences in patent law do not fully explain this pattern, but Prussian patent policy does. The Prussian patent authority set high barriers to get a patent by applying a thorough technical examination and a strict definition of novelty. Furthermore, we show that states using a registration system granted a considerably higher number of patents than states with technical examinations.

Keywords: innovation; intellectual property; patents; patent law; technological change; Innovation; geistiges Eigentum; Patente; Patentrecht; Technologischer Wandel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D K L N O (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/jbwg-2019-0004 (text/html)

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:bpj:jbwige:v:60:y:2019:i:1:p:57-92:n:4

DOI: 10.1515/jbwg-2019-0004

Access Statistics for this article

Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook is currently edited by Dieter Ziegler

More articles in Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().