Trade Secrets: Intellectual Piracy and the Origins of American Industrial PowerDuring the first decades of America’s existence as a nation, private citizens, voluntary associations, and government officials encouraged the smuggling of European inventions and artisans to the New World. At the same time, the young republic was developing policies that set new standards for protecting industrial innovations. This book traces the evolution of America’s contradictory approach to intellectual property rights from the colonial period to the age of Jackson. During the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries Britain shared technological innovations selectively with its American colonies. It became less willing to do so once America’s fledgling industries grew more competitive. After the Revolution, the leaders of the republic supported the piracy of European technology in order to promote the economic strength and political independence of the new nation. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the United States became a leader among industrializing nations and a major exporter of technology. It erased from national memory its years of piracy and became the world’s foremost advocate of international laws regulating intellectual property. |
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... letters of protection from competition were given to foreign artisans , in order to entice them to settle in England and teach their English apprentices their trades . Two hun- dred years later , during the reign of Elizabeth I , the ...
... letters all over Europe why certain innovations worked . Technological breakthroughs and scientific discoveries were reported in the same journals , making them widely accessible and allowing innovators to build on the discoveries of ...
... letter published in the Philadelphia Journal on April 6 , 1769 : “ There is but one expedient left whereby we can save our sinking country , and that is by encour- aging American manufactures . Unless we do this , we shall be undone ...
... Letters from an American Farmer . Crèvecoeur came to North America in 1765 and after the Revolution became the French consul in New York . The New World , he declared in 1782 , " has so many charms , and presents to Europeans so many ...
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Contents
1 | |
18 | |
44 | |
The American Seduction of Machines and Artisans | 78 |
Chapter 5 Ocial Orchestration of Technology Smuggling | 104 |
Chapter 6 Constructing the American Understanding of Intellectual Property | 142 |
Chapter 7 The Path to Crystal Palace | 184 |
Notes | 215 |
Index | 269 |
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Trade Secrets: Intellectual Piracy and the Origins of American Industrial Power Doron S. Ben-Atar No preview available - 2004 |