Patent Act

Patent Act and Patents Act (with their variations) are stock short titles used in Canada, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States for legislation relating to patents.

A Patent Act is a country's legislation that controls the use of patents, such as the Patentgesetz in Germany.

List

Canada

Germany

India

Malaysia

New Zealand

United Kingdom

Patent Act of 1836

The Patent Act of 1836 established a number of important changes in the United States patent system. These include:

See also

References

Patent Act of 1790

The Patent Act of 1790 was the first patent statute passed by the federal government of the United States. It was enacted on April 10, 1790, about one year after the constitution was ratified and a new government was organized. The law was concise, defining the subject matter of a U.S. patent as “any useful art, manufacture, engine, machine, or device, or any improvement thereon not before known or used.” It granted the applicant the "sole and exclusive right and liberty of making, constructing, using and vending to others to be used" of his invention.

Background

The origins of the 1790 Patent Act can be found in House Resolution 41, which brought about a discussion concerning the constitutionality of authorizing patents of importation. House Resolution 41 is the reason for why the Patent Act of 1790 did not provide for patents of importation when it was finally passed. Patent Board members, who also called themselves the “Commissioners for the Promotion of Useful Arts”, were given the authority to grant or refuse a patent after deciding if the invention or discovery was “sufficiently useful and important.” The first board members included Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox, and Edmund Randolph. Obtaining a patent required an overall fee of about four to five dollars：filing the application cost fifty cents plus ten cents per hundred words of specification: two dollars for producing the actual patent, one dollar for affixing the Great Seal and twenty cents for endorsement and all other services. The duration of each patent was assigned by the Patent Board, and could be of any length as long as it did not exceed fourteen years.