Examining inventions, shaping property: The savants and the french patent system

Abstract

In 1791, the Loi relative aux découvertes utiles instituted a new patent system in France. Because patents were seen as the expression of the natural right of inventors, prior examination was abolished. However, only a few years after the law was passed, an unofficial examination was reinstated, and it was entrusted to the Comité Consultatif des Arts et Manufactures – a consultative body composed of prominent scientists. I analyze the political significance of the involvement of the savants in the patent system, and based on the archives of the Comité, I study the scope and practicalities of the examination process, paying close attention to the ways through which the savants of the Comité directly intervened in the writing and drawing of specifications. I show how a distinct regime of intellectual property emerged in France and how it was constructed by the interests and norms of scientists, eager as they were to distinguish ‘science’ from ‘industry’ and establish the superiority of the former over the latter.