The history of IP

June 19, 2008
Intellectual Property News and Interesting Facts

“All new discoveries are the property of the author; to assure the inventor the property and temporary enjoyment of his discovery, there shall be delivered to him a patent for five, ten or fifteen years”. In Europe, French author A. Nion mentioned “propriété intellectuelle” in his Droits civils des auteurs, artistes et inventeurs, published in 1846.

The concept’s origins can potentially be traced back further. Jewish law includes several considerations whose effects are similar to those of modern intellectual property laws, though the notion of intellectual creations as “property” does not seem to exist. The Talmud contains the first known example of codifying a prohibition against the stealing of ideas, which is further discussed in the Shulchan Aruch.