Knowledge, Patents, Power: The Making of a Patent System in the Dutch Republic

In Knowledge, Patents, Power, Marius Buning tells the complex story of how the emergence of a Dutch patent regime is related to wider issues concerning governmental control and innovation. Buning analyses the institutional framework in which ＂innovative knowledge＂ could develop in the Dutch Republic from a variety of perspectives. This is not only a comprehensive study of patent law and its administrative and legal framework during the first four decades of the Dutch republic, it also opens up new perspectives on a wide range of issues in cultural and political history-- from truth claims in early modern science to issues concerning mercantilism and Dutch seventeenth-century processes of state formation.

Marius Buning, Ph.D. (2013), is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the CREATIVE IPR project, University of Oslo. His research interests focus on the origins of intellectual property and the role of the state in shaping notions of scientific and technological progress.