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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 61
... emigrate illegally to the countries they represented . By the same token , they tried to preserve their technological advantage by preventing competitors from acquiring their protected know - how , and by Knowledge as Property in the ...
... emigrating . British sulfuric acid producers conceived of a different strategy to keep competitors in the dark . They recruited for their factories only Welsh operatives who spoke Welsh exclusively.11 The Industrial Revolution raised ...
... emigration of artisans and the export of machinery . They covered the metal , clock , glass , pot- tery , harness , mining , and certain machine - making trades as well as textiles . From 1749 on , enticement of immigrants from Britain ...
... the same token , it was important to prevent the emigration of valuable artisans to the New World because in the mind of British mercantil- ists this terminated their contribution to the production of exports 24 THE BATTLE OVER TECHNOLOGY.
... emigrating . Some relied on the duplicitous activities of unsavory characters . William Cunningham confessed just prior to his execution in London that in the 1770s he had worked at enticing English mechanics " to ship themselves for ...
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 |
Other editions - View all
Trade Secrets: Intellectual Piracy and the Origins of American Industrial Power Doron S. Ben-Atar No preview available - 2004 |