Venetian Patents
Venice has been the cradle of the world's first patent system for centuries since, back in March 19, 1474, it instituted the Venetian Patent Statute, as an incentive for innovation and to protect human ingenuity and creativity.
Venice, for centuries a melting pot of trade, innovation and technology, included many important manufactures, such as those of precious fabrics, paper, glass, etc.
Trade with great China, as early as 1300, by Marco Polo, brought enormous wealth to the city.
Among the main Venetian manufactures of the fifteenth century, there was that of the production of glass, in particular, the production of glass with different shapes, colors and chromatic effects.
In fact, in the workshops of the adjacent Venetian island of Murano, the Venetian glass masters developed procedures for the production of colored glass which were then used throughout Europe for the creation of large stained glass windows that adorned palaces and cathedrals.
The small space on the island of Murano in which said Masters operated meant that keeping secret the information relating to those innovative procedures, as well as the technical experiences that the artisan workshops gradually experimented, was almost impossible.
Therefore, on March 19, 1474, the Senate of the Republic of Venice approved the first patent legislation in the world which gave inventors the exclusive right on an invention, or the right to exclude others from being able to produce, use, etc. the finding of the invention.
At the same time, the world's first Patent Office was established. In fact, the task of supervising the registration of patents was assigned to the Office of our Provededori de Comun (Office of our Provveditori del Comune).
There are therefore 43 patents filed with the Office of the Provveditori of the Municipality in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, while in 1500 597 patents were filed, 600 in 1600 and 765 in 1700, until, in 1797, the Republic of Venice it fell conquered by Napoleon Bonaparte.
In this way, in addition to protecting and encouraging innovation in the glass industry, the Venetian Senate created a way to protect and attract brilliant minds to Venice, allowing the protectability of their ingenious inventions, thus bringing wealth, even intellectual, for the exclusive benefit of the Republic.
On 21 August 1609 also Gallileo Galilei went to the Office of the Superintendents of the Municipality to register his patent relating to the telescope (Telescope). The Venetian Senate, which already recognized cash prizes for inventors, doubled his salary, also offering him a lifetime teaching contract.
The Venetian Statute, already in 1474, contemplated and introduced the concepts of patent licensing and direct counterfeiting and by equivalence, also providing for a fine of 100 Ducats for counterfeiters and the destruction of counterfeit goods.
The Venetian patents, some of which contain illustrations of ancient war machines, are now kept in the State Archives of Venice, in the Franciscan convent of the Frari next to the church of the Frari.
Little is now generally known about Venetian patents, yet, long ago, on a small island in the Venetian lagoon, the city of Venice knew how to value the ingenuity of the minds which, then as now, are the engine of innovation that every day is there for all to see and which continually improves the life of all humanity.
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