Patents and the market for technology in the early 19th century France

Gabriel Galvez-Behar (1)

1 IRHiS - Institut de Recherches Historiques du Septentrion (IRHiS) - UMR 8529

Since the Ancien Régime, the privileges for inventions could be sold in order to improve the connection between inventors and capitalists. The 1791 French patent laws recognized the inventor's rights as a property and allowed the patent holders to assign their rights. However, to be valid, such an assignment had to be made before a notary and be registred in the prefecture. From 1824 these records were published in the Bulletin des lois. This provision was extended by the 1844 patent law and was always implemented. Thanks to this legal requirement, we have the opportunity to analyze an uninterrupted source about all these transactions during the whole 19th century. Our paper focuses on the period 1824-1844. First, we review the legal framework of French patent system, particularly regarding assignments of patents. We. Secondly, we analyze the sales, which occurred during this period and we compare them with the data available about all patents issued during the early 19th century. Finally, we consider the notion of market for technology by considering complementary sources.

Mots clés: economic history; history of technology; patents; market for technology

Mots clés: histoire économique; histoire des techniques; brevets d'invention; marché des techniques; France

Domaines: Histoire; Economies et finances

Gabriel Galvez-Behar. Patents and the market for technology in the early 19th century France. World Economic History Congress, International Econoomic History Association; Science Council of Japan, Aug 2015, Kyoto, Japan. ⟨hal-01222137⟩