During the Great Depression, the increasing dominance of big business over the U.S. patent system attracted attention and controversy, culminating in a congressional investigation of the issue: Had corporations co-opted the patent system to form monopolies, stifle competition, and constrict industries? In response, big business and the U.S. Patent Office used celebrations of the history of the patent system as key opportunities for presenting a more positive counternarrative to the US-American public. The first such opportunity was the hundredth anniversary of the Patent Act of 1836. In the 1936 commemoration, Patent Office officials and patent system stakeholders exploited the figure of the lone inventor, a trope used to help the public associate the patent system with the creative genius of the individual patentee rather than with the monopolistic practices of big business. This essay, a narratological study of the celebratory proceedings in 1936, explains how and why officials embarked on this exercise in peacetime propaganda, even as it ended up contradicting the priorities of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

During the Great Depression, the increasing dominance of big business over the U.S. patent system attracted attention and controversy, culminating in a congressional investigation of the issue: Had corporations co-opted the patent system to form monopolies, stifle competition, and constrict industries? In response, big business and the U.S. Patent Office used celebrations of the history of the patent system as key opportunities for presenting a more positive counternarrative to the US-American public. The first such opportunity was the hundredth anniversary of the Patent Act of 1836. In the 1936 commemoration, Patent Office officials and patent system stakeholders exploited the figure of the lone inventor, a trope used to help the public associate the patent system with the creative genius of the individual patentee rather than with the monopolistic practices of big business. This essay, a narratological study of the celebratory proceedings in 1936, explains how and why officials embarked on this exercise in peacetime propaganda, even as it ended up contradicting the priorities of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1941, the Swedish Patent and Registration Office (PRV) celebrated its fiftieth anniversary as an independent agency. The major event of this celebration was an exhibition at the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology titled Idé – Patent – Produkt. In this dissertation, I start from this exhibition to examine how it was used to promote the patent office and its viewpoints. This is done through a microhistorical study influenced by theoretical underpinning from narratology, storytelling, and material culture. The overarching research questions concerning what narratives were presented in the exhibition and how these narratives were present in the planning and displayed objects are answered by studying material from the archives of the Swedish Museum of Science and Technology and PRV.

Studying the planning of the exhibition provides information about PRV's influence on the exhibition, the collaboration between museum representatives and PRV's exhibition committee, and how the exhibition was motivated when PRV sought funding. In my examination of the exhibition, I chose three objects - patents, uniforms, and inventions - that were especially interesting as representations of the materialization of the patent system. The exhibition committee used these objects to establish a narrative of PRV as a reliable, effective, and bureaucratic agency to counteract negative press reports. Museum staff used objects from the museum collection to establish PRV and the patent system as essential entities in the master narratives of the inventor and Swedish inventiveness. By studying Idé – Patent – Produkt, this dissertation contributes to the existing research on intellectual property by examining how the patent office used a celebration to exhibit the positive aspects of the patent system and defend it from critique.

1941 firade Patent- och Registreringsverket (PRV) femtio år som en självständig myndighet. Ett utmärkande event vid detta firande var en utställning på Tekniska museet med titeln Idé – Patent – Produkt. I den här avhandling utgår jag från Idé – Patent – Produkt för att undersöka hur den användes för att främja patentverket och dess synpunkter. Detta görs genom en mikrohistorisk studie influerad av teoretiskt grunder från narratologi, storytelling och materiell kultur. De övergripande forskningsfrågorna om vilka berättelser som presenterades i utställningen och hur dessa berättelser återfanns i planeringen och de visade föremålen besvaras genom material från Tekniska museets och PRV:s arkiv.

Att studera planeringen av utställningen ger kunskap om PRV:s inflytande på utställningen, samarbetet mellan museiföreträdare och PRV:s utställningskommitté samt hur utställningen motiverades när PRV sökte medel. I min granskning av utställningen valde jag tre föremål - patent, uniformer och uppfinningar - som var särskilt intressanta som representationer av patentsystemets materialisering. Utställningskommittén använde dessa föremål för att etablera en berättelse om PRV som en pålitlig, effektiv och byråkratiskt ämbetsverk som ett svar på negativa pressrapporter. Museipersonalen använde föremål ur museisamlingen för att etablera PRV och patentsystemet som väsentliga i huvudberättelser om uppfinnarens och svensk uppfinningsrikedom. Genom att studera Idé – Patent – Produkt bidrar denna avhandling till den befintliga forskningen om immateriella rättigheter genom att undersöka hur patentverket använde ett firande för att visa upp de positiva aspekterna av patentsystemet.

Intresset i den här texten ligger på sociala medier som en möjlighet för bredare meningsfull interaktion, och som ett sätt att synliggöra den sammanhållning som kan skapas genom ideologisk eller politiskt motiverad interaktion. Här handlar det inte om att synliggöra sin aktivism för andra utan snarare om att hitta styrka i liksinnade och använda sociala medier som en plats för samhörighet. Vi tittar på instagram som plattform för feministisk aktivism och kopplar det bland annat till Carol Hanish text "The personal is political".

As the central character in contemporary crime drama has shifted from the forensic scientist to the consultant, this puts the representation of knowledge in television in a new light. Basing the analysis in a comparative analysis of traditional crime drama like CSI: Crime Scene Investigationand consultant crime dramas such as Elementary or Sherlock, this article investigates how the representation of knowledge has changed.

From being based on formal science education, towards a situation where knowledge is tied to a specific character thus making it personal and accessible. By using examples from CSI, Elementary and Sherlock, this article suggests that the scientific attitude is replaced by the legitimization of internet as a contemporary source of knowledge, in the series and in the character of Sherlock Holmes himself.

Parallels are then drawn between the modern-day use of internet and how some of the different characters of the consultant crime dramas are seen as metaphors for the World Wide Web.