ABSTRACT:

Economic interpretations, in particular the lens of the Industrial Revolution, have strongly influenced our understanding of the rise of intellectual property. This article examines the political origins of the 1791 patent law in France, which is usually seen as the birth of the modern patent system in that country. Although calls to reform the Old Regime's privileges of invention were increasingly frequent as the eighteenth century wore on, only the French Revolution provided the ideological resources necessary for such a transformation. The revolutionaries did more than just adopt the procedures of English legislation, such as replacing prior examination with a registration system. I argue that the new patents (brevets d'invention) reflected the Revolution's image of the ideal society—a society built on natural rights, property, and the social contract, and made of rational inventors and an enlightened public. In France, more so than in other countries, intellectual property was the child of a political revolution rather than industrial capitalism.

摘要：

经济解释，尤其是工业革命的镜头，极大地影响了我们对知识产权崛起的理解。本文考察了法国1791年专利法的政治渊源，通常认为这是该国现代专利制度的诞生。尽管随着1​​8世纪的过去，改革旧政权的发明特权的呼声越来越高，但只有法国大革命才提供了进行这种转变所必需的思想资源。革命者所做的不只是采用英国立法的程序，例如用登记制度代替事先的考试。我认为，新专利（brevets d'invention）反映了革命时期理想社会的形象，即一个以自然权利，财产和社会契约为基础的社会，它由理性的发明家和开明的公众组成。在法国，比起其他国家，知识产权更是政治革命的产物，而不是工业资本主义的产物。