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" Patenting dyes and drugs in Britain, 1860-1960 : "
Muhammad, Amran
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1098979
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TLets557622
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| Main Entry
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Muhammad, Amran
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| Title & Author
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Patenting dyes and drugs in Britain, 1860-1960 :\ Muhammad, Amran
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| College
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University of Manchester
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| Date
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2004
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| student score
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2004
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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A patent is a limited monopoly granted to an inventor by the state in return for thedisclosure of new useful inventions. While the rights of patentees are protected andrewarded through royalties and licensing fees, for example, other enterprising bodiescan develop new industries for the benefit of the public. Thus, the patent system hasalways been considered to be in a delicate position in serving both the rights ofinventors and the interests of the public. However, in examining the relationshipbetween scientists and the patent system in Britain between 1860 and 1960, itappears neither the rights of inventors nor the interests of the public were foremost inthe actual operation of the patent system. On the contrary, the empirical evidencegathered in this thesis suggests that the British patent system had actually become aconservative and self-serving system, perpetuating the interests of its ownpractitioners - patent agents, lawyers, and judges. At the outset, the thesis questionsa common perception that "British scientific tradition" discourages scientists fromtaking out patents, by showing that British chemists have a long and uninterruptedpatenting tradition, and that it was often the British patent system itself that actuallyhindered scientists from taking out patents. Furthermore, the resistance to patentinggenerated by occupational conflict between the medical profession and chemistsexacerbated the difficulty of patenting for British scientists. The thesis illustrateshow British chemists experienced consistent difficulty with the British patent system.The chemists' patenting activity took place in the contexts of the emergence of thescience-based chemical industry starting from the mid-nineteenth centurycharacterised by the industrialisation and internationalisation of inventions, whichconsequently gave the patent system a key role in protecting the industry. While therise of the new science-based chemical industry saw chemists play a crucial role ininventing new products and processes, the patent system, which was supposed toprotect these new science-based chemical inventions, was slow to change in the faceof entrenched legal interests and political and economic doctrine. It emerges fromthis study that patents and the patent system played at least as much of a role in the"decline" of the British chemical industry as the oft-cited lack of research,manufacturing, management and marketing investments in the British science-basedchemical industry itself. The significance of these historical discussions for currentpatent reform in science is considered.
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University of Manchester
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