[The first patents were for restaurants, giving them exclusive rights for a year to new dishes they invented.]
According to Wikipedia, this is not true for patents in Europe, nor for patents in English-style common law, nor for patents in English-speaking North America, nor for patents in the USA.
The Wikipedia article on the history of patent law doesn’t even mention the word “restaurant”, nor indeed “food”. In general it seems like the concept of patent has meant roughly what it currently does for many centuries.
I first heard it… in a talk, I think? Which is where I picked up the narrower claim of “restaurants” over the more broad claim that you can find in the entry on Sybaris from A Classical Dictionary, which states:
On the other hand, great encouragement was held out to all who should discover any new refinement in luxury, the profits arising from which were secured to the inventor by patent for the space of a year.
That source I found from the Wikipedia page on patents, which I why I trusted my memory of the talk enough to include it in the OP. The other source Wikipedia cites is more direct:
And if any confectioner or cook invented any peculiar and excellent dish, no other artist was allowed to make this for a year; but he alone who invented it was entitled to all the profit to be derived from the manufacture of it for that time; in order that others might be induced to labour at excelling in such pursuits.
A major quibble with a minor point:
According to Wikipedia, this is not true for patents in Europe, nor for patents in English-style common law, nor for patents in English-speaking North America, nor for patents in the USA.
The Wikipedia article on the history of patent law doesn’t even mention the word “restaurant”, nor indeed “food”. In general it seems like the concept of patent has meant roughly what it currently does for many centuries.
What’s your source for this claim?
I first heard it… in a talk, I think? Which is where I picked up the narrower claim of “restaurants” over the more broad claim that you can find in the entry on Sybaris from A Classical Dictionary, which states:
That source I found from the Wikipedia page on patents, which I why I trusted my memory of the talk enough to include it in the OP. The other source Wikipedia cites is more direct: