ABSTRACT
Foreign competitors regarded German machine builders as ‘the most notorious pirates’ in Europe. Measuring technical progress by using patent statistics is not a generally accepted practice. Prior to the introduction of the nationwide German Patent Law, several different patent systems existed across the German states. The state governments gradually introduced these patent systems during the first half of the nineteenth century. The Prussian patent system was based on a royal decree issued in 1815. In the Constitution of the North German Confederation of 1867, Prussia insisted that granting patents become a federal competence. In many respects, the German Patent Law incorporated elements that had already been common patenting practices prior to 1877. Lehmann-Hasemeyer and Streb noticed that companies with patents were disproportionately represented on the Berlin stock exchange. After 1877, it is possible to compare patenting activities in different German regions, which were by then all part of the same patent system.
