ABSTRACT
Any government payment to an inventor is a reward from Parliament and so it would be perfectly legitimate to consider any government award to be indirectly a Parliamentary reward. The process of obtaining a reward was usually started by a petition from the inventor or his or her representative being presented to the House of Commons. In addition to Parliamentary fees, costs paid up front as it were, there were also deductions made to any Parliamentary award. The payment of rewards began with Thomas Lombe in 1732 and continued until the award to Captain Scott in 1872. This chapter expresses that the reward system demonstrates the growth of the social contract between patentee and state, and more particularly, they argue that the reward system solidified the function of the specification and the requirement of public disclosure.
