About the website

Over the years, INPI has become one of France’s repositories for innovation, having safely guarded a vast collection of patents since 1791, trade marks since 1857, and designs since 1910.

The aim of the historical archives portal is to make the archival materials held by INPI more accessible. Here you will find data and digital copies relating to the following two archive collections:

• the collection of patents granted in France between 1791 and 1901, made up of almost 410,000 original files,
• the collection of trade marks registered in France between 1857 and 1920, made up of more than 460,000 original documents.

> The collection of French designs from 1910 onwards is available on DATA INPI .

More than just industrial property rights, these documents provide unique and little-known evidence in a wide range of fields: the history of science and technology, companies, trends and objects and, in a more general sense, our economic, social and cultural history from the end of the 18th century onwards.

This portal is aimed at researchers, historians and professionals working in the fields of documentation, archives, museums and heritage, as well as anyone with an interest in French innovation. Its aim is to help people discover this unique heritage in the field of industrial property and its history.