The Propertisation of Science

Abstract

For thirty years scientific institutions have been engaged in a process of propertisation through the strengthening of intellectual property in science. In fact, the relationship between science, intellectual property rights and the economic spheres have ever been neither stable nor continuous. Therefore a historical inquiry is necessary to understand the meaning and the practice of scientific property from the middle of 19th century to WW II. In this paper, the relationship between scientific authorship and property appears as a mean to promote the scientific work and its professionalization. Moreover, through the study of the French case, the place of science in the patent system is taken into account in order to understand, at last, the international controversy about scientific property during the interwar period.