Different types of inventors and patent applicants

Arnaud Péters illustrates the first part of his research with the help of one main source: historical patent data.  He was able to build and to query a database of all existing patents.

Péters shows that in Belgium and outside it, the number of patents increased very sharply after 1854, and the ranks of inventors became a more diverse group. “Patents were claimed by independent people, industrial companies or business people,” he says. “An investigation shows that individuals were often representatives of companies. At Vieille-Montagne, from 1853, patents were applied for in the name of the general director of the company. There were many individual persons who applied for patents, particularly those who were referred to as ‘polyvalent and isolated inventors’. They patented things in many areas, and they were not representatives of a company, or the attachment was not a controlling one. And it was rare for their patents to be requested by industrial companies”.

Péters also shows that this increase in patenting activity was associated with the professionalization of two occupations – engineer and lawyer – that would be of tremendous importance in the history of patents and innovation.

At a time when more and more people (and more and more different kinds of people) were seeking patents, the earliest engineering schools opened, including one at Liège. Once they obtained their diplomas, young engineers entered the patent game. At the same time the new profession of “patent agent” developed mainly among lawyers. These agents acted as intermediaries between Belgium and foreign countries on behalf of the holders of imported patents. Inspired by this new way of doing business, many lawyers began to apply for patents in their own names.

Patents and industrial innovation

The high number of patents per inhabitant and the spectacular boom occasioned by the 1854 reform are evidence of the competition over patentable innovations that took place during the 19th century in Belgium. At the same time Belgian industry was developing in an impressive way. Can we conclude that competition over patents was a factor in the growth of industry during the period? Did it foster growth? Or were the two phenomena independent?

Arnaud Péters gives several different answers to these questions. First, he points out that many patents were never developed in industrial applications, and most of them fell back into the public domain after two years. For some inventors, patents were an end in themselves. Many patents’ technical value was never verified ; many of them were never put to a practical test. Corentin De Favereau, a Ph.D. in history at the Catholic University of Louvain who collaborated with Arnaud Péters, wrote a thesis on agricultural patents. His research shows the importance of advertising for patent applicants. During the 19th century, being able to call oneself an inventor with patents was a matter of prestige. “Some inventors applied for a patent just to to improve their reputation, but in fact in many cases their patents quickly expired and went back into the public domain because they didn’t act on the rights granted, or because they failed to pay annual fees for the maintenance of the patents,” said Arnaud Péters.

And it was rare for anyone to be hauled into court for fake patents. There were only 104 such cases in court records for the period 1817-1873 – an insignificant number compared to the number of patents granted. These elements make it appear that the average economic value of a patent was very low, and that patents did not really contribute to technical innovation.

This analysis is opposed to that of some economists, among whom is the British Douglass North. For North, industrial development in 18th and 19th century England is clearly the result of the patent system. His way of looking at the matter has been questioned among others by America’s Petra Moser, for whom the relationship between patents and innovation is still rather tenuous during the 19th century. According to Moser, only in the 20th century did the relationship become more obvious.