Anti-patent movement

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The anti-patent movement was an ideological trend in the second half of the 19th century, which is to oppose the patent protection and called for its abolition.

Protagonists

Representatives of the anti-patent movement were the then head of the “Technical Deputation” in the Prussian Ministry of Commerce, Rudolph von Delbrück , later head of the Reich Chancellery and a staunch advocate of free trade . Even Otto von Bismarck advocated the abolition in 1868 of patent protection. In the free trade movement, the opponents of patent protection were John Prince-Smith , the journalist Julius Faucher , the MP Karl Braun and the editor Otto Michaelis .

history

Both the free trade movement and the Prussian ministerial bureaucracy spoke out against a standardization of the patent system in the then German Confederation. In 1863, in response to a survey by the Prussian Minister of Commerce, Heinrich Friedrich von Itzenplitz, 31 Prussian chambers of commerce spoke out against the protection of inventions and only 16 in favor; the movement reached its climax in the Congress of German Economists in Dresden in 1863 in September 1867. An expert report by the Leipzig Chamber of Commerce from 1869 saw "the only correct solution to the patent question in the complete repeal of the patent laws". The movement was initially successful in the Netherlands and Switzerland. In 1868, based on the constitution of the North German Confederation , Minister von Itzenplitz attempted to abolish the patent system nationwide; Otto von Bismarck submitted a corresponding proposal to the Federal Council on December 15, 1868. Karl Viktor Böhmert published an article in 1869 in which he wrote: “The patents are ripe for falling and are more and more recognized as rotten fruit on the tree of human culture.” However, developments in other countries proved the opposite, precisely because of the lack of them The inventors went to England and America to protect inventors.

In the German Reich, the Reich constitution of 1871 provided for in its Article 4 Number 5 the legislation of the Reich on invention patents. However, in 1872 the Prussian government applied to the Federal Council to abolish inventor protection because it was viewed as economically disadvantageous and contrary to freedom of trade. The Association of German Engineers (VDI) presented the draft of a patent law in 1872 , and the international patent congress held in Vienna in 1873 on the occasion of the world exhibition in 1873 had a positive effect . At the insistence of the VDI and the patent protection association ( Werner von Siemens had already in 1863 on behalf of the Elder College of Berlin Kaufmannschaft issued a positive report) the government started to prepare a draft. The decision in favor of patent protection was brought about by the enactment of the patent law in the German Reich in 1877 (after Delbrück's resignation, whose successor Karl von Jacobi , who later became the first president of the Imperial Patent Office, was considered a patent friend).

literature

  • Victor Böhmert: The invention patents based on economic principles and industrial experience with special consideration for England and Switzerland. In: Quarterly for Economics and Cultural History. Volume 7,1, 1869, pp. 28-106 (online)
  • Peter Kurz: World History of Invention Protection. Edited by the Chamber of Patent Attorneys . Carl Heymanns, Cologne et al. 2000, ISBN 3-452-24331-1 , p. 350 ff.
  • Florian Dressel: New structures for the protection of intellectual property in the 19th century, Rudolf Klostermann's contribution (= legal historical writings. Volume 29). Böhlau, Cologne / Vienna / Weimar 2013, ISBN 978-3-412-21115-8 (also dissertation, University of Bonn).

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Kurz: World History of the Protection of Invention. Edited by the Chamber of Patent Attorneys . Carl Heymanns, Cologne et al. 2000, ISBN 3-452-24331-1 , p. 354.
  2. ↑ Peter Kurz: World History of the Protection of Invention. Edited by the Chamber of Patent Attorneys . Carl Heymanns, Cologne et al. 2000, ISBN 3-452-24331-1 , p. 351.
  3. ^ The arguments of the anti-patent movement , accessed December 4, 2015.
  4. ↑ Rudolf Busse (original), Alfred Keukenschrijver (ed.): Patent Law. 8th edition. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-032378-8 , introduction to the patent law marg. 12.
  5. ↑ Peter Kurz: World History of the Protection of Invention. Edited by the Chamber of Patent Attorneys . Carl Heymanns, Cologne et al. 2000, ISBN 3-452-24331-1 , p. 360.
  6. ↑ Quoted from Peter Kurz: World History of Invention Protection. Edited by the Chamber of Patent Attorneys . Carl Heymanns, Cologne et al. 2000, ISBN 3-452-24331-1 , p. 361.
  7. ↑ Rudolf Busse (original), Alfred Keukenschrijver (ed.): Patent Law. 8th edition. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-032378-8 , introduction to the patent law marg. 12.
  8. ↑ Peter Kurz: World History of the Protection of Invention. Edited by the Chamber of Patent Attorneys . Carl Heymanns, Cologne et al. 2000, ISBN 3-452-24331-1 , p. 353.