Patent Scenarios for the Mississippi River

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Notes

1 The Venetian government began issuing patents in the first decades of the fifteenth century and in 1474 drafted the world's first patent law, known as the Venetian Patent Statute. The first “true” patent was issued in 1421 to the architect Filippo Brunelleschi of Florence, though patent law there did not develop as robustly as it did in Venice. Correlations between industrialization and patent law have arguably skewed the contemporary interpretation of patents toward objects, machines, and devices. For an in-depth analysis of the relationship between patents and industry, see Christine MacLeod, Inventing the Industrial Revolution: The English Patent System, 1660–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).

2 Salvatore Ciriacono, Building on Water: Venice, Holland and the Construction of the European Landscape in Early Modern Times (New York: Berghahn Books, 2006).

3 Craig Allen Nard and Andrew P. Morriss, “Constitutionalizing Patents: From Venice to Philadelphia,” Review of Law and Economics 2, no. 2 (2006): 223–321.

4 Juan Bautista Medici, System for the formation of permanent channels in navigable rivers, US Patent 658,795, issued 1900.

5 George B. Boomer, Method of constructing levees, US Patent 452,989, issued 1891.

6 Linus Brown, System of protecting riparian lands from overflow, US Patent 488,422, issued 1892.

7 Lewis M. Haupt, “History of the Reaction Breakwater at Aransas Pass, Texas,” Journal of the Franklin Institute 165, no. 2 (1908): 81–97.

8 Lewis Haupt, Jetty or breakwater, US Patent 687,387, issued 1901.

9 Bentley, Samuel J., et al. "Using what we have: Optimizing sediment management in Mississippi River delta restoration to improve the economic viability of the nation." Perspectives on the Restoration of the Mississippi Delta. Springer Netherlands, 2014. 85-97.

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Notes on contributors

Richard L. Hindle

Author Biography

Richard L. Hindle is an assistant professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches courses in ecological technology, planting design, and graduate design studios. Hindle's research focuses on technology in the urban landscape with an emphasis on material processes, innovation, and patents. His current work explores landscape-related technologies across a range of scales, from large-scale mappings of riverine and coastal patents to detailed studies of artificial “hard” habitats associated with coastal armoring. He has worked as a consultant and designer with firms such as Surface Design, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Steven Holl,and Atelier Jean Nouvel, on advanced building systems integrated with vegetation.