The patent system of the Netherlands and Belgium, 1817-1869

Abstract

This article is a long-run institutional study of the patent systems of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and its successor states Belgium and Netherlands in the nineteenth century. The patent law of 1817 gave the state wide discretion to customise the patent grant, length, conditions and costs on a case-by-case basis. Through an in-depth reconstruction of the patent delivery process, I demonstrate (1) how this system developed informal rules of procedure in its initial years, and (2) how the law fared differently in each successor state after Belgium’s independence from 1830. While in Belgium the patent system became widely used and increasingly codified, leading to an 1850s reform, in the Netherlands the neglect of the patent system ultimately led to its 1869 abolition.