IPocracy

Patents Considered Evil
The concept of "intellectual property" dates from the French revolution, and patents in their modern form were solidified in the 1850s. At that time, Europe debated the pros and cons of patents exhaustively. The Economist newspaper was founded as an anti-patent, pro-free trade paper. Most familiar arguments for and against patents date to this era. The patent system was ended in several countries (Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany). However, free-trade economists lost power after a serious economic crisis, and the patent system came back into force by the 1870s. The patent system remained largely unquestioned until the 21st century, when it started to seriously affect the software industry.