This book is the first detailed historical account of intellectual property law. In part, it examines why intellectual property law with its subcategories of patents, copyright, designs and trade marks took the shape that it did over the course of the nineteenth century. In addition the authors deal with ways in which the law grants property status to intangibles and describe how the law came to create techniques that enabled it to recognize protectable intangibles, and the inescapable problems that have arisen from their use.

This book is the first detailed historical account of intellectual property law. In part, it examines why intellectual property law with its subcategories of patents, copyright, designs and trade marks took the shape that it did over the course of the nineteenth century. In addition the authors deal with ways in which the law grants property status to intangibles and describe how the law came to create techniques that enabled it to recognize protectable intangibles, and the inescapable problems that have arisen from their use.

Taking the invention as its object of study, Figures of Invention develops a radical new perspective on the making of modern patent law. It develops the first extended historical and conceptual exploration of the invention in modern patent law. Focusing primarily on the figures that make inventions material, and on how to overcome the intangibility of ideas, this intellectual challenging book makes explicit a dimension of patent law that is not commonly found in traditional commentaries, treatises and cases.
The story is told from the perspective of the material media in which the...