PATENT. A grant of some privilege, property, or authority, made by the govern ment or sovereign of a country to one or more individuals. Phillips, Pat. 1.
As the term was originally used in Eng land, it signified certain written instruments emanating from the king and sealed with the great seal. These instruments conferred grants of lands, honors, or franchises; they were called letters patent, from being de livered open, and by way of contradistinction from instruments like the French lettres de cachet, which went out sealed.
In the United States, the word patent is (sometimes understood to mean the title / deed by which a government, either state lor federal, conveys its lands. But in its more usual acceptation it is understood as referring to those instruments by which the government secures to inventors for a limited time the exclusive right to their own inventions.
The granting of exclusive privileges by means of letters patent was a power which for a long time was greatly abused by the sovereigns of England. The sole right of dealing in. certain commodities was in that manner conferred upon particular individ uals, either as a matter of royal favor or as a means of replenishing the royal treas ury. These exclusive privileges, which were termed monopolies, became extremely odious, and, at an early date, met with the most de termined resistance. One of the provisions of Magna Charta was intended to prevent the granting of monopolies of this character ; and subsequent prohibitions and restrictions were enacted by parliament even under the most energetic and absolute of their mon archs. See Hallam, Const. Hist. 153, 205.
Still, the unregulated and despotic power of the crown, which reached its height in Elizabeth's reign, proved, in many instances, superior to the law, until the reign of James I., 1623, when an act was passed, known as the Statute of Monopolies, 21 Jac. 1, ch. 3, which entirely prohibited all grants of that nature, and abolished existing monopolies. But the king was permitted to secure by let ters patent to the inventor of any new manu facture, the sole right to make and vend the same for a term not exceeding fourteen years. Since that time the power of the
monarch has been so far controlled by the law that the prohibition contained in the Statute of Monopolies has been fully ob served, and under that statute has grown up the present system of British patent law, from which ours has to a great extent been derived. See Rob. Pat. §§ 1-8. See 12 Law Quart. Rev. 141, as to the earliest grants of privileges in England and the early history of patent law.
The constitution of the United States (art. 1, § 6, el. 8) confers upon congress the pow er "to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive tight to their respective writings and discoveries." This right can, accordingly, be conferred only upon the authors and i/nventors them selves; but it rests with congress to deter mine the length of time during which it shall continue. Congress at an early day availed itself of the power. The first act passed was that which established the pat tent office, on the 10th of April, 1790. There were several supplements and modifications to this law, the acts passed February 7, 1793, June 7, 1794, April 17, 1800, July 3, 1832, July 13, 1832. These were all repealed, by an act passed July 4, 1836, and a new sys tem was established. Subsequently other changes were made by the acts of March 3, 1837, March 3, 1839, 29, 1842, May 27, 1848, March 3, 1849, February 18, 1861, March 2, 1861, July .16, 1862, March 3, 1863, June 25, 1864, and March 3, 1865. The act of July 8, 1870, repealed all existing acts. Va rious minor amendments to it have been passed.
The patent laws were extended to the Canal Zone by Circular of the Isthmian Canal Commission (March 15, 1907). Pro tection of a patent right in the Philippines is procured by filing at the Bureau of Pat ents, etc., a certified copy of the United States patent (Circular of the Division of Customs, etc., of the war department, April 11, 1899, and subsequent circulars) ; and in Porto Rico, under the same circular of April 11, 1899, by filing at the office of the Secre tary, San Juan, a certified copy of the pat ent.