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A printing patent refers to a privilege right that one gets allowing for monopoly regarding printing in an area. The printing patent was the forerunner of contemporary copyrights; allowing for exclusive printing rights of work.
The earliest printing patent was awarded to John of Speyer as far back as 1469. He obtained the exclusive printing rights for works produced in Venice.
Aldus obtained the same rights, but for Greek works in 1495 also in the city of Venice. The rights were awarded because of his investment in creating a Greek font for his printing press.
From 1723 to 1789 guilds had the sole printing rights to works in France. It was brought about through the Code de la librairie, which gave the French king monopoly over the choice of who may print what. This made printing the exclusive right of a guild of publishers.
In essence, it left authors with little choice and with the permission of printing being renewed automatically from one generation to another; the monopoly was definitely not in favour of authors. The French Revolution brought an end to this practice.
In England, printing privileges were granted according to the Royal Prerogative, allowing for two types of patent rights such as the right to print a single type or piece of work that was written earlier for a restricted time period, and general printing privileges, granting rights for printing a class of works.
Eventually the importance of such rights declined, and in 1775, the exclusive rights obtained through means of the Royal Prerogative zere removed.
An example of such printing patent rights that made inroads in the literary world of the day was that of John Day who printed the Book of Martyrs and had sole rights to the printing of such.
If you need assistance with the setting up of sole printing rights for a class of works or a particular work today, contact us at Smit & Van Wyk.
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