%0 Journal Article
%T Examining inventions, shaping property: The savants and the French patent system
%A J¨¦r£¿me Baudry
%J History of Science
%@ 1753-8564
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0073275318767233
%X In 1791, the Loi relative aux d¨¦couvertes utiles instituted a new patent system in France. Because patents were seen as the expression of the natural right of inventors, prior examination was abolished. However, only a few years after the law was passed, an unofficial examination was reinstated, and it was entrusted to the Comit¨¦ Consultatif des Arts et Manufactures ¨C a consultative body composed of prominent scientists. I analyze the political significance of the involvement of the savants in the patent system, and based on the archives of the Comit¨¦, I study the scope and practicalities of the examination process, paying close attention to the ways through which the savants of the Comit¨¦ directly intervened in the writing and drawing of specifications. I show how a distinct regime of intellectual property emerged in France and how it was constructed by the interests and norms of scientists, eager as they were to distinguish ¡®science¡¯ from ¡®industry¡¯ and establish the superiority of the former over the latter
%K Examination of inventions
%K France
%K intellectual property
%K patents
%K science and industry
%K specifications
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0073275318767233