Antoni Gaudi Quotes
Nothing is invented that has not appeared in nature first.
Antoni Gaudi, Spanish Catalonian Architect, Quoted on PBS Rick Steve’s Europe: Barcelona, May 14, 2015
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Many people believe that patents—especially in the high technology arena—actually inhibit innovation.
This is a very important quotation in the Patent world. One of the major justifications for giving patent monopoly to an inventor is that without the patent protection people would not invest time, effort or money to invent things. However many of the great inventors have not agreed. The original Constitutional purpose in granting patents was to stimulate disclosure of technology to other inventors and educate the nation. That is why all patents are public and can be viewed by all.
What is ironic about this fact is that 1000 years ago, the Muslim Middle East was scientifically and mathematically far in advance of Europe. However, after about 1100 AD, the Muslim religion began to lose its intellectual tolerance and cultural appreciation for science and innovation to the point where innovation of any kind was regarded as heresy, and the logic and empiricism that was present in early Islam disappeared, and there has been little scientific innovation and progress in traditional Arab Islamic nations ever since.
When Secretary of State, Jefferson ran the first American Patent Office. The Patent system was originally and educational program, not an intellectual property program. Inventors would keep all their technological secrets to themselves. The idea behind the original patent system was to give an inventor a limited monopoly on profiting from his invention in exchange for sharing his information and techniques with his countrymen—thus improving the technological competency of the entire society. The very first patents were available for public inspection for that reason. And even today, copies of patents are available easily for almost no cost. And few American ideas worked as well as our early patent system. Through its educational role and technology transfer, America came from technological nowhere to being the pre-eminent inventing nation of the world. The balance between public access to invention and innovation and preservation of some rights to the creator of intellectual property is key to modern development.
The patent laws were introduced in England in 1624. Lincoln is the only American President who applied for and was granted a patent. He invented a device for getting a grounded boat on a sandbar back into the water.
He worked for General Electric for over 40 years and held 322 patents. However, it was the corporation that financially benefitted from the monopolies granted by the patents. Our legal system assumes that the creative output of an individual who is an employee is the property of the employer just as the output of the slave was the property of the master.
Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was a Catalan architect known as the greatest exponent of Catalan Modernism. Gaudí's works have a highly individualized, sui generis style. Most are located in Barcelona, including his main work, the church of the Sagrada Família.
