intellectual property question

Nathan Newman nathan at newman.org
Fri May 18 10:36:29 PDT 2001


----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Perelman" <michael at ecst.csuchico.edu>


>When did the term, intellectual property, first appear?

Doing a quick scan through Supreme Court decisions, a pretty isolated example is a mention in the 1873 case, Mitchell v. Tilghman, 86 U.S. 287, where the opinion quotes a letter using the phrase.

Other that that isolated mention, the phrase does not appear in a Supreme Court decision until 1949 in . C.I.R. v. Wodehouse, 337 U.S. 369.

There is a lower federal court decision from 1845 in MassDavoll v. Brown, 1 Woodb. & M. 53, 3 West.L.J. 151,, that mentions the phrase. Here is what the court says in the course of a patent dispute: "These principles, however, are not inconsistent with another one, equally well settled, which is, that a liberal construction is to be given to a patent, and inventors sustained, if practicable, without a departure from sound principles. Only thus can ingenuity and perseverance be encouraged to exert themselves in this way usefully to the community; and only in this way can we protect intellectual property, the labors of the mind, productions and interests as much a man's own, and as much the fruit of his honest industry, as the wheat he cultivates, or the flocks he rears."

Hope that helps

-- Nathan



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