ABSTRACT
There is nothing new about the patent system fostering knowledge capitalization; indeed it has been documented that patents originated as industrial policy.1 Patents originated in early Renaissance Europe from governmental practices extending ownership of tracts of land to individuals, granting monopolies for the manufacture of certain goods to guilds, and enabling miners to protect their operations from disruption by competitors. The right to protect a discovery of natural substances was expanded into a right to protect inventions of machines, processes and products.
