Conclusions

Abstract

The history of the patent institution convincingly demonstrates that the fundamental reason for its introduction was the expected benefits to the national economy from rewarding those who invented and those who introduced foreign-made inventions into the national economy. Although legal considerations have sometimes been held to be equally or even more important, their subordinate nature has been revealed whenever economic interests have conflicted with professed legal principles. The early practice of some countries, which today are highly industrialized, of granting patent protection to those who merely imported foreign technology provided one significant illustration of this.