Weavers who created a new design could be given exclusive rights to that design. You then would have been given the exclusive right to make the paisley pattern for a certain period. Patents developed logically from these proto-patents. Economic definition Economically speaking, a patent is the granting of an exclusive right to encourage development. The patent scheme is an incentive to shift those resources toward the quest for new products and new technologies.
Companies know that a patent can protect their inventions and, hence, their investment.
The pharmaceutical industry is a good example of how patents protect investment. Patents provide a pharmaceutical company with exclusive rights for its product for a period of time. A company would not invest millions of dollars in making a new product when someone who did not invest the same money could produce the same product using their research. Because of patent protection, producing new pharmaceuticals is the driving force of the industry. After the proto-patent time, artisan guilds, or unions of artisans, grew in power, primarily in the Italian city states.