The 19th century

Britain's patent system served the country well during the dramatic technological changes of the industrial revolution. However, by the mid-19th century it had become extremely inefficient. The Great Exhibition of 1851 accelerated demands for patent reform.

Up to that time, any prospective patentee had to present a petition to no less than seven offices and at each stage to pay certain fees. Charles Dickens described the procedure in exaggerated form, somewhat derisively, in his spoof, "A Poor Man's Tale of a Patent", published in the 19th-century popular journal "Household Words"; Dickens' inventor visits 34 offices (including some abolished years before).

The Patent Office came about to meet public concerns over this state of affairs, and was established by the Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852. This completely overhauled the British patent system and laid down a simplified procedure for obtaining patents of invention. Legal fees were reduced and the publication of a single United Kingdom patent replaced the issuing of separate patents for each nation of the Union.

A subsequent Act in 1883 brought into being the office of Comptroller General of Patents and a staff of patent examiners to carry out a limited form of examination; mainly to ensure that the specification described the invention properly, but without any investigation into novelty.