Abstract

In an effort to promote economic growth by stimulating innovation, the Founding Fathers engraved the concept of patent in the Constitution of the United States by granting Congress the power “to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” This article focuses first on the origins of the inclusion of this reference to intellectual/industrial property rights in the U.S. Constitution and its enduring influence on the U.S. patent system in the 19th and 20th centuries. It also stresses the impact of this patent system on the development of innovation in the U.S. during this period, and its influence on industrial property protection systems developed abroad. Last but not least, it shows that the advent of globalisation and the knowledge economy have recently led to a questioning of the model, both in the U.S. and abroad.