The patents systems created by the United States is the most successful system in the world. Still, it does take the US Patent Office between 12 and 18 months to review a patent application after you have filed it. While waiting for your invention to be approved or rejected for a patent, you may benefit by learning how the US patent system emerged.

Early Venetian patents did not result in the creation of a patent system but they were the first European patents that were issued in the Republic of Venice in the late 15h century. The patent system originated in England, also in the 15th century, with the 20-year monopoly granted by King Henry VI to John of Utynam for the use of a new method to make stained glass. Utynam's was the first recorded patent in English history and it marked the beginning of the patent system that gives inventors official sanction to reap the economic benefits of their inventions.

Later English developments built the foundation of both English and US patent laws. Before the English Parliament passed the Statute of Monopolies law in 1624, English royalty often used patents to grant trade and manufacturing monopolies to individuals who donated moneys to the royal treasury, and patentees could obtain monopolies for manufactures that were not new. The Monopolies Statute declared that patents could be issued solely to new inventions and stated that monopolies contradicted laws in England. Patent time limitations are also established by law. The English Court made it mandatory to describe inventions in writing before being able to have their patents accepted in the 18th century. The basis on which modern US patent law rests on consists of the English patent laws that were active during the Colonial period.

It did not take long, however, before the tables were turned; US Patent Law soon affected the development of English Patent Laws. Inventors can look to a clause in the first Article of the US Constitution, which pertains to Arts and Science, for protection in maintaining exclusive rights to their inventions. Prior to 1790, the King of England had been the sole official owner of all inventions created by the colonists.

In April 1790, the US Congress passed the first US patent statute, and the 1836 Patent Law created the first modern patent system in the world. The principal feature of this system is that all patent applications are reviewed to ascertain that the inventions in question conform to the law and to ensure that they are new. The statute of 1836 established the US Patent Office employing expert workers to assess patent applications. Now applicants have the right to go against decisions of the Patent Office even being able to take the appeal to the United States Supreme Court.

Among the many significant differences between the US Patent Law and the patent laws of England and European countries at the time was that it did not aim at exacting a price for granting patents; nor was it ever an instrument for raising revenues for the state. In the US there were patent application fees -- are also -- affordable. They are used only to cover the administrative expenses of the US Patent Office. In England, by contrast, exorbitant fees limited access to patents to a privileged few. Patent costs in England were four times the average income in 1860. Inventors had to follow complicated administrative procedures before they could obtain patents,and patent fees were a source of revenues for the Crown and the Court.

English concerns about facing growing US competition finally introduced changes into the English patent laws. In 1851, England realized the US was a threat in regards to industrial supremacy. This realization signaled the start of a revision process that began in 1852 when Parliament approved the Patent Law Amendment Act the first real adjustment of the patent system in two centuries and lasted well into the twentieth century. Obviously influenced by the US Patent Law, the English Patent Law of 1852 lowered patent application fees and created the Office of the Commissioners of Patents for Inventions.

US Patent Law was first created to encourage inventiveness. To permit the use of their inventions unlike many European countries, the United States does not require patentees. Nevertheless, although there have been many independent inventors in the United States since Samuel Hopkins received the first US patent in 1790, the most valuable patents today are owned by large corporations who have the means to exploit them.

The dilemma between the merits of protecting independent inventors versus the drawbacks of monopoly is as relevant today as it was when the English Parliament passed the Statute of Monopolies law in 1624 almost four hundred years ago.