"The Business Cycle of Innovators: A Tale from the Chilean Patent System, 1877-1910"

From a dataset of patent applicants in the 1877-1910 period, this paper examines the
main landmarks of the business path followed by innovators using the Chilean patent
system. Innovators are identified from the community of actors registered in the patent
records of the period, using a dataset built from archival (1895-1910 period) and
periodical records (1877-1910 period). These individuals amount to nearly 15% of the
resident applicants. They stand out because they were seen as knowledgeable
individuals in a technological domain within the patent system, as they regularly
scrutinized actors seeking patent protection, either being called by the patent office to
act as examiners, or by becoming opponents to third party patent applications, in
addition to being patent applicant themselves, and less frequently, as patent agents. In
this paper, the combined sources for the 1895-1910 period, allow me to identify
canonical routes undertaken by the actors in the making of their innovative
entrepreneur persona. The evidence shows that a structured sequence of events or
landmarks occurred in the path of the business life of these individuals. To further
support the business cycle portrait depicted by the patent records, I examine in greater
depth a few prominent case studies complementing their information with additional
historical records.