British patent numbers 1617 - 1852 (old series)

Until 1852 patents (covering England and Wales only) were obtained through the complex medieval system which required visiting seven different offices and two signatures by the monarch. Patents granted under this system were not numbered and not published by the authorities at that time (though the details of some were printed in journals such as the Repertory of Arts). Following the modernisation of the patent law in 1852, 14,359 patents granted up to that date were given numbers of the form No nnnn/yyyy, eg No 1/1617, No 913/1769 and published during the 1850s.

Copies of these patents can still be bought from our Sales Branch. It is very important when ordering patents to specify the full number including the year, as similar numbers were used between 1852 and 1915.

The table below shows the progress of patent numbers between 1617 and 1852.

* From 30 January 1649 to 29 May 1660 (the Commonwealth) England was under the rule of Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector. No patents issued during this period were included amongst those published by Bennett Woodcroft in the 1850s.

** No patents were granted in 1710; the number given is that of the last granted in 1709 (dated 2 August 1709).

*** No 14359/1852 is the last patent granted under the medieval system before the introduction of the Patent Law Amendment Act 1852 on 1 October of that year.