Patent information: an historical perspective

Michael Blackman

World Patent Information, 1994, vol. 16, issue 4, 223-232

Abstract: An historical survey of one specific technical field, as illustrated in patent disclosures, is presented. The field is umbrellas, parasols and walking sticks, from the first British patent of 1780 up to the present day, using classified abridgements in bound volumes of hard copy until the mid 1970s and online databases thereafter. More detailed analyses of the last 20 years are provided. Unlike many recent rapidly developing fields, this field has changed relatively little over two centuries; annual inputs are comparable since the middle 1800s, while many similar solutions to recurrent problems resurface periodically. Nevertheless, discernible commercially and technically significant improvements occur throughout this period, as well as many short-lived tangential developments. Some reasons for this pattern are suggested.

Date: 1994
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