Technology in Latin America’s Past and Present: New Evidence from the Patent Records

Supported by: Application in Progress
From: To:

Leading Researcher

Sáiz, Patricio  

Abstract

Although the dynamics of technological change in the North Atlantic world has been well studied, scholars have been relatively slow to systematically examine the origins and nature of technological change in much of the rest of the world. In Europe and the USA patents have provided a significant historical source for exploring distinct dimensions of innovation processes. However, in Latin America patent records remain an underutilized source for studies of the social, cultural, and economic dynamics of technological change. This project aims to join research efforts from distinct scholars in order to, first, build, link, and provide historical patent databases and statistics for Latin American and Iberian countries; and, second, encourage, support, and promote historical, legal, economic, and social studies and PhD thesis focused upon technological change processes in the region.

 

The database on Mexican Patents and Inventors, 1830-1911, was developed by Vandari Mendoza from the original patent files and register books available at the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico DF.
The database on Patents Issued in Mexico, 1830-1911, was developed by Ted Beatty from distinct official publications such as Gaceta Oficial de Patentes y Marcas or the Diario Oficial de la Nación.
The database on Cuban Patents, 1830-1898, is being developed under the direction of Patricio Sáiz and Nadia Fernández-de-Pinedo from distinct documentation available at the Archivo Nacional de la República de Cuba in La Habana.
The database on Argentine Patents, 1866-1914, is being developed by Yovanna Pineda from distinct official publications.
The database on Peruvian Patents, 1893-1967, is being developed by Martín Monsalve Zanatti and José Manuel Carrasco Weston from documentation available at the Archivo General de la Nación in Lima.
The dabase on Chilean Patents, 1840-1908 has been developed by Bernardita Escobar from distinct official publications and historical files available at the INAPI (http://www.inapi.cl).
The dataset on Uruguayan historical patents is being developed by Pablo Galaso, who is in charge of a research project on invention networks in Latin America in collaboration with the Dirección Nacional de la Propiedad Industrial of Uruguay (DNPI).