On March 19, 1474, the Venetian patent law was passed which was the first of its kind in the world, and it declared that "every person in this city manufactures any new and ingenious device that was not manufactured until that time in our land. Once it is completed, it becomes prohibited to anyone Another in any region or place belonging to us to manufacture any other device in the form or similar to that device, without the consent and permission of the owner of the invention, for a period of ten years.

The aim of the law was to attract inventors and investors to Venice and to stimulate new economic activities, which was one of the factors in the start of the Renaissance.