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How was the duration of a patent determined?
Utility patents, prior to Gatt, lasted 17 years from date of issuance. The master-apprentice relationship was a seven year relationship. Custom had it that when an apprentice learned something from his master that was not otherwise known in the trade (i.e., an invention) the apprentice would not practice it for two apprentice periods following the end of his apprenticeship. The master could have developed the invention at the start or at the end of the apprenticeship, making the average time in the middle. Adding half the existing apprenticeship period with the two subsequent apprenticeship periods (3-1/2 + 7 + 7) gave 17-1/2years of a monopoly for the inventor. For convenience sake, the half year was dropped, giving a 17 year monopoly. Design and plant patents lasted 14 years from the date of issuance (7+7). Gatt changed the durations which are now based upon a compromise of time periods from the contracting governments.
Updated: 11/12/99
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