	The history and impact of intellectual property rights plays quite a prominent role in the history of science. It is arguably one of the most prominent manners in which governmental decisions have shaped the progress of science and technology. Inventors and scientists, people who have dedicated their lives to innovation and discovery, need an incentive to succeed in their work. Patent law provides such people, with economic security and protects their rights from piracy.
	With origins taking root in laws as early as 500 BCE, the issue of granting rights to intellectual property is a long-standing one. This should come to no surprise, as it arises from economic incentive to monopolize ideas, methods, and industries. This manifested itself more clearly in Western society through the rise of guild institutions in medieval times. In the middle ages, guilds, comprised of a collective of merchants or craftsmen, held contracts with the local government to provide their services. Thus, they were able to gain monopolies over their respective industries from their governments. Of the beneficiaries of such monopolies were the Medicii family. During the 15th century, alum was a highly sought after and indispensable mineral to Florentine society and the Medicii’s, with their strong political influence, secured a cartel agreement based on the mining technique from Pope Pius II. This granted them a monopoly over the supply of alum in Italy, which relied heavily on Turkish and Muslim and providers in the past. This is a rather interesting example of how the patent system was employed not only to the benefit of the patentee but also the government. It was a display of nationalism to weed out foreign dependence on any commodity, and it shows how the use of patent, which was practically, just doling out monopolies, helped propagate political agendas. This an early exhibition of the main concept at the core of intellectual property. Having a certain trade that only one entity is allowed to participate in and provide, while excluding outsiders from doing the same is the main concept behind copyright claims.
	Despite the presence of monopolies legitimatized by the governments throughout Europe, there is no record of an official law assigning intellectual property rights during these times. However, during the renaissance that several patenting and IP disputes arose. These were concentrated mainly in Florence and Venice. During the 1300’s it was not uncommon to have sponsored grants given to inventors, but these only lasted a temporary amount of time and were due to taking away with failure to completion.
It’s clear to see again that such claims on inventions were not by today’s standards “patents,” but rather a means to mollify certain technicians. A loading and unloading mechanisms for merchants ships is not really a novel innovation, but the prominence of this Brunelleschi made the government succumb to granting him a monopoly over the implementation of his and similar designs present in the city. 
