At the time of the Industrial Revolution, our ancestors have never exercised their imagination so much to meet new challenges. Industrial property appears during the French Revolution.

It is institutionalized by the law of January 7, 1791, providing for the creation of the office of "patents", the name of the letters patent by which the king attributed the privileges to the old corporations. The law of May 25, 1791 complements the nascent legislation on "patents of invention", the term of which then appears.

The patent administration is set up in less than two months, in the form of the Patent Directorate. It is with this Directory, which will change its name in 1902, becoming the National Office of Industrial Property, that each inventor must apply for the filing of the patent. It mentions the detailed title of the invention, the identity of the inventor, the date of filing and the duration of the patent.

This collection includes patents from 1800 to 1831, 1842, 1875 and from 1901 to 1904. It mentions the identity of the depositary, the place of his residence, the name of his invention, the date of filing and the duration of the patent.

• Bulletin of Laws

Nominal compilation of 28,700 inventors seeking the decree of patents and patents of invention in the nineteenth century