On the patent laws of the United Kingdom

Abstract

Our system of Patent Law has lately attracted much attention. Within a few years there have been several parliamentary commissions to investigate its principles; and the utility of such a system is one of the acknowledged social science questions in the sister kingdom. Here, it is true, patent law is not a matter of so much importance; yet in some parts of Ireland, I am happy to say, inventive talent is at work; and in the north, for instance, the question is regarded with continually increasing interest. I therefore thought it would not be an unreasonable occupation of the time of this Society to review the working of the system. We are perhaps the better qualified to discuss it on its own merits, as we are not led away by the powerful interests which surround this question in England.