The British Patent System during the Industrial Revolution, 1700-1852

摘要

I thought I knew all about the dysfunctional patent system in the UK in the 18th and 19th centuries, so well summarised by Charles Dickens's "A Poor Man's Tale of a Patent", which appeared in Household Words in 1850: a system that was expensive, time-consuming and required the involvement of a multitude of officials with unlikely job titles, all conspiring to slow the process down and frustrate the poor inventor. Well, I was wrong, and this excellent book will convince you, too, if you held a similar view to mine.