use, or copy the invention without his consent. Otherwise, the authorities would confiscate the vessel and impose penalties.

This type of protection--based on a temporary privilege--marked a significant legal innovation: for the first time, technical innovation was protected through an exclusive subjective right recognized by the state. In 1449, the first English patent was granted to Flemish glassmaker John of Utynam for a twenty-year monopoly on making stained glass. Venice, too, was granting patent protections by this time, usually