This book is a research guide and bibliography of Parliamentary material, including the Old Scottish Parliament and the Old Irish Parliament, relating to patents and inventions from the early seventeenth century to 1976. It chronicles the entire history of a purely British patent law before the coming into force of the European Patent Convention under the Patents Act 1977. It provides a comprehensive record of every Act, Bill, Parliamentary paper, report, petition and recorded debate or Parliamentary question on patent law during the period. The work will be an essential resource for scholars and researchers in intellectual property law, the history of technology, and legal and economic history.

This book shows how the load unit was created, and how it changed from the simplest basket to the modern metal container. A model of the stages of change of the load unit is presented, and the reasons for the changes and a possible new path of development are indicated.