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The International Dimension

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Institutionalising Patents in Nineteenth-Century Spain

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Economic History ((PEHS))

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Abstract

Spain occupied a peripheral position in the globalising Atlantic world economy of the nineteenth century, as evidenced by the way it integrated into the international patent system. Two features characterised the relationship of the Spanish patent system with the broader global dynamics of the time: first, its openness to foreign patenting and strong institutional dependency and, second, the prevalence of transfer agents who facilitated the transmission of knowledge and information to Spain. This analysis of the international dimension of the system concludes with the case study of Julio Vizcarrondo and the Elzaburu agency, the pioneer professional patent business in Spain that assisted foreign inventors and companies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I. Inkster, ‘Patents as Indicators of Technological Change and Innovation – An Historical Analysis of the Patent Data 1830–1914’, Proceedings of the Newcomen Society 73 (2003): 179–208.

  2. 2.

    ‘Patent Laws’, Scientific American 15 (3), (01/01/1848): 118.

  3. 3.

    The magazine Scientific American often reminded American inventors that the agency Munn & Co., editor of this publication, ‘obtain[s] patents in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Prussia, Austria and Spain, with promptness and dispatch’. ‘Instructions about European Patents’, Scientific American 2 (1005), (13/07/1861): 3.

  4. 4.

    J. M. Ortiz-Villajos, ‘Spanish Patenting and Technological Dependency, pre-1936’, History of Technology 24 (2002): 203–32; P. Sáiz, ‘Los orígenes de la dependencia tecnológica española. Evidencias en el sistema de patentes (1759–1900)’, Economía Industrial 343 (2002): 83–95; D. Pretel, ‘La economía política del sistema español de patentes en perspectiva internacional, 1826–1902’, Investigaciones de Historia Económica 13 (3), (2017): 190–200.

  5. 5.

    C. May and S. K. Shell, Intellectual Property Rights: A Critical History (London: Lynee Rienner Publishers, 2006): 111.

  6. 6.

    F. Machlup and E. Penrose, ‘The Patent Controversy in the Nineteenth Century’, The Journal of Economic History 10 (1): 1–29.

  7. 7.

    May and Shell (2006), Op. cit., 116.

  8. 8.

    S. Ricketson, The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property: A Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015): 26–29.

  9. 9.

    S. Pollard, Peaceful Conquest: The Industrialization of Europe 1760–1970 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981): 271.

  10. 10.

    Ricketson (2015), Op. cit., 30–31.

  11. 11.

    There is a report of Vienna Congress of 1873 by the delegate of the British government T. Webster, Congrès International des Brevets d’Invention tenu à l’Exposition Universelle de Vienne en 1873 (Paris: Marchal, Billard et Cie, 1877).

  12. 12.

    Y. Plasseraud and F. Savignon, Paris 1883: Genèse Du Droit Unioniste Des Brevets (Paris: Litec, 1983): 155–74; E. T. Penrose, The Economics of the International Patent System (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1951): 48–55.

  13. 13.

    L. M. de Larra, La Unión Internacional para la Protección de la Propiedad Industrial (Madrid, 1887); T. Merly, La Unión Internacional: análisis de la misma (Madrid: 1890).

  14. 14.

    Plasseraud and Savignon (1983), Op. cit., 175–220; See also http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/paris/

  15. 15.

    Conférence Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Industrielle (Paris: Ministère des Affaires Étrangère, 1883): 21.

  16. 16.

    Penrose (1951), Op. cit., Chapter 4; Plasseraud and Savignon (1982), Op. cit., 205–9.

  17. 17.

    Ricketson (2015), Op. cit., 69.

  18. 18.

    See, for example, the article by the mining engineer and inventor Enrique Hauser: E. Hauser, Bases fundamentales para una ley universal sobre patentes de invención (Madrid: Teodoro y Alonso, 1900).

  19. 19.

    Royal Decree of 21/08/1884. See also Industria e Invenciones 189 (23/10/1886).

  20. 20.

    Ricketson (2015), Op. cit., 67–72.

  21. 21.

    Cited in A. Bogsch, The First Hundred Years of the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (Geneva, WIPO, 1991): 30.

  22. 22.

    bopi No. 87, (01/04/1890); and Procès-verbaux de la Conférence de Madrid de 1890 de l’Union pour la protection de la propriété industrielle, suivis des actes signés en 1891 et ratifiés en 1892 (Berne: Jent et Reinert, 1890).

  23. 23.

    See also Official Reports of Parliamentary Debates: Industrial Conference at Madrid (HC Deb 13 March 1890, vol. 342 c.717) and The Times (03/05/1890).

  24. 24.

    ‘Conferencia Internacional para la protección de la propiedad industrial’, El País (07/04/1890) and 09/04/1890. For a summary of press releases and editorials from newspapers of the time see: J. D. Montero Rius, De Madrid a Madrid, cien años de marcas internacionales. Arreglo de Madrid 1891–1991 (Madrid: OEPM, 1992).

  25. 25.

    ‘La Conferencia de Madrid’, El Imparcial (02/04/1890).

  26. 26.

    See references in endnote 4 in this chapter. See also Chapter 1 of this book for additional references and a discussion on the dynamics of technology transfer to Spain during the nineteenth century.

  27. 27.

    Pretel (2017), Op. cit.

  28. 28.

    See Notes on Sources (appendix).

  29. 29.

    See R. Fox and A. Guagnini, Laboratories, Workshops, and Sites: Concepts and Practices of Research in Industrial Europe, 1800–1914 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999): 158 and I. Inkster, Science and Technology in History (Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, 1991): 158.

  30. 30.

    ahoepm, Privilegio 1212.

  31. 31.

    ahoepm, Privilegio 1199.

  32. 32.

    For the series of agreements, the Ybarra Brothers signed with the company Bessemer & Longsdon and with the inventor Adrien Chenot, see P. Díaz, Los Ybarra. Una dinastía de empresarios, 1801–2001 (Madrid: Marcial Pons Historia, 2002): 83–95. For the Bessemer system in Spain, see H. Bessemer, An Autobiography (London: 1905) and J. G. H., ‘El sistema Bessemer en España. Su historia y su porvenir’, Revista Minera XXX (1879): 353–354.

  33. 33.

    ahoepm, Privilegio 1510.

  34. 34.

    For Henry Bessemer’s profuse use of patenting for protecting his inventions see I. Inkster, Science and Technology in History: An Approach to Industrial Development (Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, 1991): 161 and G. Tweedale, ‘Bessemer, Sir Henry (1813–1898)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

  35. 35.

    ahoepm, Privilegio 1482.

  36. 36.

    C. K. Hyde, ‘Iron and Steel Technologies moving between Europe and the United States’, in D.J. Jeremy (ed.), International Technology Transfer. Europe, Japan and the USA, 1700–1914 (Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1991): 51–73.

  37. 37.

    From 1890 the Bessemer converter would be gradually replaced by open-hearth steel methods (e.g. Martin-Siemens), which yielded steel of superior quality and strength.

  38. 38.

    E. Fernández de Pinedo and R. Uriarte, ‘British Technology and Spanish Iron Making During the Nineteenth Century’, in C. Evans and G. Rydén (eds.), The Industrial Revolution in Iron (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005):151–172.

  39. 39.

    H. Bessemer , An Autobiography (London: Offices of Engineering, 1905): 63.

  40. 40.

    The Engineer 256 (March 1898).

  41. 41.

    P. Sáiz and D. Pretel, ‘Why Did Multinationals Patent in Spain? Several Historical Inquiries’, in P-Y. Donzé and S. Nishimura (eds.), Organizing Global Technology Flows: Institutions, Actors, and Processes (New York: Routledge, 2013): 39–59; For contemporary accounts on corporate patenting see ‘Las patentes como base de los grandes negocios’, Industria e Invenciones, No. 2, (13/01/1906): 13; and the discussion at the CIPA compiled with the title ‘Grants of Patents to Companies’, TCIPA, Vol. IX, (Session 1890–91): 126–8.

  42. 42.

    See endnote 29 in this chapter and C. Freeman, The Economics of Industrial Innovation (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986): 176–178.

  43. 43.

    J. M. Ortiz-Villajos, ‘Patents, What for? The Case of Crossley Brothers and the Introduction of the Gas Engine into Spain, c. 1870–1914’, Business History 56 (4), (2004): 650–676; Sáiz and Pretel (2013), Op. cit.; P. Sáiz, ‘Patents as Corporate Tools: Babcock & Wilcox’s Business and Innovation Strategies in Spain’, Entreprises et Histoire 82 (2016): 64–88.

  44. 44.

    A. Lozano, ‘A Source of Modest Comfort: Las inversiones de Vickers en España, 1897–1936’, Historia Industrial 16 (1999): 69–90.

  45. 45.

    taep [D8941ABD], 28/10/1889; [CE94114], 10/04/1894; [D9823AAH], 14/4/1898.

  46. 46.

    taep [CE88052], 02/04/1888.

  47. 47.

    taep [CE87044 and CE85003].

  48. 48.

    See F. L. Dyer and T. C. Martin, Edison. His Life and Inventions (New York: Harper & Bros., 1910): 971 and taep [D9226AAD], 14/07/1892.

  49. 49.

    D. Pretel, ‘The Global Rise of Patent Expertise During the Late 19th Century’, Cambridge Working Papers in Economic and Social History, 31 (2017).

  50. 50.

    T. Merly, ‘La Unión Internacional para la protección de la Propiedad Industrial: análisis de la misma’, El Liberal (20-31/03/1890).

  51. 51.

    In the late nineteenth century, some patent agents demanded that the state relax its requirements regarding the translation of patent and trademark documentation. See for instance the official request by the agent José Gómez Acebo to the State Minister. Royal Decree of 26/02/1897.

  52. 52.

    taep, Instructions to Agents, [D9823AAB], 03/10/1898.

  53. 53.

    taep [D9823AAK], (05/06/1898); [D9823AAC], 03/18/1898; [D9823AAR], 3/6/1898.

  54. 54.

    taep [D9823AAG], 13/4/1898; [D9823AAB, TAEM 137: 321], 3/10/1898.

  55. 55.

    L. Galambos, ‘The Role of Professionals in the Chandler Paradigm’, in W. Lazonik, and D. Teece (eds.), Management Innovation: Essays in the Spirit of Alfred Chandler (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012): 125–146.

  56. 56.

    For the patent file, specifications, contract of assignment and notarised working of Marconi’s patent on wireless technology in Spain see Patent no. 20041 (AHOPEM).

  57. 57.

    J. Johnson and J. H. Johnson, The Patentee’s Manual (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1890), 351.

  58. 58.

    Annuaires de L’Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Proprieté Industrielle (published from 1897); ‘Asociación internacional para la protección de la propiedad industrial’, Industria e Invenciones (02/05/1898): 205; Ricketson (2015), Op. cit., 75–6; M. Georgii, ‘International Association for the Protection of Industrial Property’, The Inventive Age 3 (March 1898): 42–3.

  59. 59.

    For some of these condemnations of the defects of the Spanish patent law of 1878 by Spanish agents see ‘Patent Practice in Spain’, TCIPA, Vol. VI (1888): 97–98; H. Graham, On the Progress and Work of the Institute of Patent Agents (London: Spottiswoode & Co., 1890): 18; For the interpretation of the Spanish patent law by Spanish agents see the correspondence of Gerónimo Bolibar and Alberto Clarke to the Institute of Patents Agents in 1901. Partially reproduced in TCIPA, Vol. XX (1901–2): 18 and 126–9.

  60. 60.

    ‘Proposed Patent Law in Spain’, TCIPA, Vol. II (1888–9): 33–4.

  61. 61.

    Letter from Julio Vizcarrondo to the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents (CIPA) read at the 28th ordinary meeting of this institute (London, 05/05/1886). A summary of its content is in “Spanish Patent Laws”, TCIPA, Vol. IV (1885–6): 238–239.

  62. 62.

    Historical Dossier, Elzaburu Industrial Property Agency (Madrid, 2009).

  63. 63.

    Elzaburu Agency Private Records and the original powers of attorney kept in the patent documentation of the AHOEPM (see appendix on sources).

  64. 64.

    In the International Directory of Patent Agents for 1897 (London: William Reeves) Francisco Elzaburu advertised himself as ‘Patent and Trademark business in Spain, Portugal and the Spanish-American countries. Careful work, Moderate Charges. First Class References’.

  65. 65.

    Revista Ilustrada de la Banca, Ferrocarriles y Seguros (25/11/1905): 550

  66. 66.

    AHOEPM Pat. no. 5602 and Elzaburu Agency Private Records, Registration Book for the year 1886.

  67. 67.

    J. S. Salaman, Trade Marks: Their Registration and Protection in the United Kingdom and Abroad (London: Shaw and Son, 1876).

  68. 68.

    For the high fees this agency charged at the turn of the century see the letter sent by Francisco Elzaburu in 1902 to a correspondent agent explaining the fees of the agency. Partially transcribed in Journal of the Society of Patent Agents, Vol. III, no. 27 (March 1902).

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Pretel, D. (2018). The International Dimension. In: Institutionalising Patents in Nineteenth-Century Spain. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96298-6_4

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