Acknowledgements ............................................... ix
List of Abbreviations .......................................... xi
Introduction .................................................... 1
1 The Inventiveness Requirement ................................ 1
2 'Global Patent Warming ....................................... 4
3 Aim of This Study ............................................ 9
4 Methodology ................................................. 12
5 Demarcation and Chronology .................................. 13
6 Jurisdictions ............................................... 15
7 Terminology and Translations ................................ 16
Part I. The Early History of the Inventiveness Requirement ..... 19
Chapter 1. The Early History of the Inventiveness
Requirement: Preliminary Remarks ............................... 21
Chapter 2. Antiquity and Medieval Europe ....................... 23
2.1 Introduction .............................................. 23
2.2 Sybaris, Saxony and the Alps .............................. 24
2.3 Renaissance Italy ......................................... 26
2.4 Conclusion ................................................ 34
Chapter 3. The Republic of Venice .............................. 37
3.1 Introduction .............................................. 37
3.2 The Early Venetian (Quasi-)patents Practice ............... 38
3.1 The Venetian Patent Statute (1474) ........................ 41
3.4 The Requirement of Inventiveness .......................... 43
3.5 Conclusion ................................................ 48
Chapter 4. The Venetian Patent Practice Spreading through
Europe ......................................................... 51
4.1 Introduction .............................................. 51
4.2 Background ................................................ 52
4.3 France .................................................... 54
4.4 Germany ................................................... 56
4.5 The Netherlands ........................................... 58
4.6 Floating Standards ........................................ 59
4.7 Conclusion ................................................ 61
Chapter 5. England ............................................. 63
5.1 Introduction .............................................. 63
5.2 Collective and Individual Grants in the Middle Ages ....... 64
5.3 The Sixteenth Century ..................................... 65
5.4 The Odious Monopolies ..................................... 70
5.5 The Statute of Monopolies ................................. 74
5.6 The Inventiveness Requirement: Textual and the Contextual
Indications ............................................... 76
5.7 Developments after 1624 ................................... 80
5.8 The Early Nineteenth Century .............................. 86
5.9 Conclusion ................................................ 90
Chapter 6. United States ....................................... 95
6.1 Introduction .............................................. 95
6.2 The Colonial Period ....................................... 96
6.3 Patent Policy after the Declaration of Independence
(1776) .................................................... 99
6.4 A Short Legislative History of the Patent Act of 1790 .... 102
6.5 The Patent Act of 1790 ................................... 106
6.6 The Patent Act of 1793 ................................... 111
6.7 Conclusion ............................................... 119
Part II. The Inventiveness Requirement in Its Modern Phase .... 123
Chapter 7. The Inventiveness Requirement in Its Modern Phase:
Preliminary Remarlis .......................................... 125
Chapter 8. Inventiveness in the Age of Modernization .......... 127
8.1 Introduction ............................................. 127
8.2 United States ............................................ 128
8.3 United Kingdom and the Patent Law Amendment Act (1852) ... 138
8.4 Conclusion ............................................... 146
Chapter 9. The Further Rise of the Inventiveness Standard ..... 149
9.1 Introduction ............................................. 149
9.2 The Patent Debate in Europe .............................. 150
9.3 Internationalization ..................................... 156
9.4 United States ............................................ 158
9.5 United Kingdom ........................................... 165
9.6 Germany and Its Reichspatentgesetz (1877) ................ 172
9.7 Conclusion ............................................... 179
Chapter 10. The Invention, the Inventor and the Workman ....... 183
10.1 Introduction ............................................. 183
10.2 United States ............................................ 184
10.2.1 Two Schools of Thought ............................ 185
10.2.2 A Wary Eye on Patents (the 1930s and 1940s) ....... 188
10.3 United Kingdom ........................................... 198
10.3.1 Consolidadon of the Requirement ................... 198
10.3.2 Obviousness and the Perspective of the Skilled
Workman ........................................... 202
10.4 Germany .................................................. 210
10.4.1 Technical Advance and Inventive Height ............ 211
10.4.2 Focusing on the Inventor .......................... 215
10.5 The Netherlands .......................................... 220
10.5.1 The Patent Act (1910) ............................. 220
10.5.2 Application of the Open Standard .................. 223
10.6 Conclusion ............................................... 233
Chapter 11. Systematization ................................... 235
11.1 Introducdon .............................................. 235
11.2 United States ............................................ 236
11.2.1 The Patent Act (1952) ............................. 237
11.2.2 The Pro-patent Era ................................ 246
11.2.3 The Supreme Court Steps In ........................ 256
11.3 The European Patent Convendon ............................ 261
11.3.1 The Road towards Harmonization .................... 261
11.3.2 The Inteфretation of Article 56 EPC ............... 265
11.4 United Kingdom ........................................... 278
11.5 Germany .................................................. 283
11.6 The Netherlands .......................................... 286
11.7 Conclusion ............................................... 291
Summary and Conclusion
1 The Inventiveness Requirement through History ............ 295
1.1 The Medieval Phase ....................................... 296
1.2 The Mercantilist Phase ................................... 297
1.3 The Pre-modern Phase ..................................... 299
1.4 The Modern Phase and the Qualitative-Quantitative
Dichotomy ................................................ 301
2 Some Questions for the Future ............................ 307
2.1 Problems Ahead ........................................... 308
2.2 Sources of Change ........................................ 309
2.3 The Future of the Qualitative Standard ................... 311
Bibliography .................................................. 313
Table of Cases ................................................ 329
Index ......................................................... 339
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