Patenting the Risorgimento: Economic Integration and the Formation of the Italian Patent System (1855–1872)

In 1864, the patent law of the Kingdom of Sardinia was extended to the newly created Kingdom of Italy. In this paper, on the basis of a new dataset containing all Italian patents granted over the period 1855-1872, we examine the formative years of this crucial institutional change. Firstly, we map the characteristics of the inventors before and after the 1864 reform. In particular, we look at their nationality and geographical distribution within the country, the technological fields in which they were active, the intensity of use of the system (sporadic versus “systematic” patentees), and their investments in patent protection (measured in terms of the fees they were paying). We find that the reform of the patent system prompted a reconfiguration of the geographical structure of Italian inventive activity, producing an increasing participation of the inventors of the other pre-unitary states, and, at the same time, becoming more attractive for inventors on a large international scale. This can be interpreted as a sign of an effective integration policy, at least in this specific domain of government activity.