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Patent Alchemy: The Market for Technology in US History

Author

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  • Lamoreaux, Naomi R.
  • Sokoloff, Kenneth L.
  • Sutthiphisal, Dhanoos

Abstract

The literature on inventors has traditionally focused on entrepreneurs who exploited their ideas in their own businesses and on researchers who worked in large firms' R&D laboratories. For most of US history, however, it was as common for inventors to profit from their ideas by selling off or licensing the patent rights. This article traces the different ways in which inventors resolved the information problems involved in marketing their patents. We focus in particular on the patent attorneys who emerged during the last third of the nineteenth century to help inventors find buyers for their intellectual property.

Suggested Citation

  • Lamoreaux, Naomi R. & Sokoloff, Kenneth L. & Sutthiphisal, Dhanoos, 2013. "Patent Alchemy: The Market for Technology in US History," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(1), pages 3-38, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buhirw:v:87:y:2013:i:01:p:3-38_00
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Esposito, Christopher R., 2023. "The geography of breakthrough invention in the United States over the 20th century," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(7).
    2. Patricio Sáiz & Rubén Amengual, 2018. "Do patents enable disclosure? Strategic innovation management of the four-stroke engine," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(6), pages 975-997.
    3. Rapone, Tancredi, 2022. "Measuring human capital in the united states using copyright title pages, 1790-1870," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113448, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Carlos J. Serrano & Rosemarie Ziedonis, 2018. "How Redeployable are Patent Assets? Evidence from Failed Startups," NBER Working Papers 24526, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Andrews, Michael J. & Whalley, Alexander, 2022. "150 years of the geography of innovation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    6. Mukund Chari & H. Kevin Steensma & Charles Connaughton & Ralph Heidl, 2022. "The influence of patent assertion entities on inventor behavior," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(8), pages 1666-1690, August.
    7. Kim, Young-Choon & Rhee, Mooweon & Kotha, Reddi, 2019. "Many hands: The effect of the prior inventor-intermediaries relationship on academic licensing," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 813-829.
    8. Saiz, Patricio & Amengual, Rafael, 2016. "Knowledge Disclosure, Patent Management, and the Four-Stroke Engine Business," Working Papers in Economic History 2016/02, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), Department of Economic Analysis (Economic Theory and Economic History).
    9. Roya Ghafele & Benjamin Gibert, 2014. "IP Commercialization Tactics in Developing Country Contexts," Journal of Management and Strategy, Journal of Management and Strategy, Sciedu Press, vol. 5(2), pages 1-15, May.
    10. Bottomley, Sean, 2014. "Patents and the first industrial revolution in the United States, France and Britain, 1700-1850," IAST Working Papers 14-14, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).
    11. Giacomo Domini, 2019. "Exhibitions, patents, and innovation in the early twentieth century: evidence from the Turin 1911 International Exhibition," LEM Papers Series 2019/04, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.

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