Patent: References & Edit History

Although there is no single definitive resource on the history of patent law, good information can be obtained from H.I. Dutton, The Patent System and Inventive Activity During the Industrial Revolution, 1750–1852 (1984); Christine MacLeod, Inventing the Industrial Revolution: The English Patent System, 1660–1800 (1988); and Edward C. Walterscheid, “To Promote the Progress of Science and Useful Arts: The Background and Origin of the Intellectual Property Clause of the United States Constitution,” Journal of Intellectual Property Law, 2(1):1–56 (Fall 1994).

The leading treatise on contemporary patent law is Donald S. Chisum, Chisum on Patents: A Treatise on the Law of Patentability, Validity, and Infringement, 7 vol. in 8 (1978– ). Robert Patrick Merges, Patent Law and Policy: Cases and Materials, 2nd ed. (1997), is an excellent collection of primary sources pertaining to the United States. Summaries of the law in other countries may be found in Dennis Campbell and Susan Cotter (eds.), International Intellectual Property Law (1995– ). The TRIPS Agreement is examined in Michael P. Ryan, Knowledge Diplomacy: Global Competition and the Politics of Intellectual Property (1998).