The Anti-Patent Movement Revisited : Institutional Change and Cognitive Frames in Nineteenth-Century Germany

This paper examines the development of patent legislation which favored the centralization of economic decision-making in nineteenth-century Germany. Since the passing of a patent law in 1877 became possible only after the financial crisis and the weakening of the anti-patent movement, I suggest that changes in network structures and cognitive frameworks influenced the institution-building process. More specifically, I find that the reception of conflicting evaluative frameworks by dominant actors led to cognitive dissonance which could be creatively exploited by the industrialist lobby within the pro-patent movement