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Patents and Cartographic Inventions

A New Perspective for Map History

Mark Monmonier author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Springer International Publishing AG

Published:21st Jun '18

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Patents and Cartographic Inventions cover

This book explores the US patent system, which helped practical minded innovators establish intellectual property rights and fulfill the need for achievement that motivates inventors and scholars alike. In this sense, the patent system was a parallel literature: a vetting institution similar to the conventional academic-scientific-technical journal insofar as the patent examiner was both editor and peer reviewer, while the patent attorney was a co-author or ghost writer. In probing evolving notions of novelty, non-obviousness, and cumulative innovation, Mark Monmonier examines rural address guides, folding schemes, world map projections, diverse improvements of the terrestrial globe, mechanical route-following machines that anticipated the GPS navigator, and the early electrical you-are-here mall map, which opened the way for digital cartography and provided fodder for patent trolls, who treat the patent largely as a license to litigate. 

“Monmonier’s book provides a much-needed, in-depth, and deeply researched analysis of cartographic patents. Patents and Cartographic Inventions: A New Perspective for Map History is recommended for those interested in understanding how cartographic innovations have developed over the past century and a half.” (John J. Swab, Cartographic Perspectives, Issue 90, 2018)

ISBN: 9783319845517

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 454g

267 pages

Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2017