The How And Why Of Patents, Including The World's Most Famous Watchmaking Patent Granted ...

Electric lighting glows in our rooms due to patents held by Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan; plastic is omnipresent thanks to patents registered by Leo Baekeland; and even ballpoint pens would not be on every desk if Laszlo Biro hadn't patented them Patents are granted by national and regional patent offices such as the European Patent Office At present, no world or international patents exist according to the World Intellectual Property Organization, a specialized agency belonging to the United Nations.

The most famous patent in modern wristwatch history - the stuff of legends, actually - is Abraham-Louis Breguet's April 14, 1801 patent on his tourbillon, granted to him by France's ministry of the interior Modern-day Montres Breguet SA in L'Abbaye, Switzerland, is perhaps the most justified in using tourbillons - and has filed a number of other patents based upon it, such as U.S patent number 7350966, describing a "Watch including at least two regulating systems" Breguet's original tourbillon patent has long expired, but Christian Lattmann, former vice president of products at Breguet and now CEO of sister company Jaquet Droz, once explained to me why patenting remains so essential to the Swatch Group brands.

The reasoning is simple: nobody disputes the patent that Breguet had for the tourbillon device. . Source