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The word patent is derived from the Latin pateo, meaning to be open or exposed. During the medieval period, ‘letters patent’ were frequently used by monarchs and other sovereign powers to confer various awards such as lands and titles, or to create new rights and privileges, such as the right to incorporate. These awards were a matter of public record, hence the need for them to be ‘patent’, that is, open to scrutiny. In time, letters patent were also found to be a convenient way of awarding privileges to foreign craftsmen who were willing to share craft technology. These form the earliest precursors to the modern patent grant; in England the first such examples are the letters of protection awarded in 1331 to Flemish weaver John Kempe, on the condition that he instruct native apprentices. 1 The patent was confirmed by a 1337 statute that accorded safe conduct and the king’s protection to any other foreign weavers who wished to settle in England.2