Re: The good fight

>>> riolo[_at_]voicenet.com 10/02/02 02:51PM >>> wrote:
Both 14 and 28 are multiples of 7 which is interpreted as a perfect number in some religious teachings. This may explain why a multiple of 7 is chosen for early copyright laws.
<<<<<

The explanation offered by Bruce W. Bugbee [The Genesis of American Patent and Copyright Law (1960)] is that 7 years was the usual term of apprenticeship. The Statute of Monopolies permitted patents for new inventions for a period of 14 years, or enough time to train two sets of apprentices, who could then further disseminate the invention after the patent expired. The term limits in the Statute of Anne were then based, in turn, on those in the Statute of Monopolies.

Tyler T. Ochoa
Professor and Co-Director
Center for Intellectual Property Law
Whittier Law School
3333 Harbor Blvd.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 444-4141, ext. 243
(714) 444-1854 (fax)
tochoa[_at_]law.whittier.edu Received on Fri Oct 11 2002 - 23:33:28 GMT