[Aurora Plomer] Abstract: ...This article’s original contribution to the existing scholarship is twofold. It shows that European States viewed patents as legal shields against foreign industrial piracy spurred by international trade fairs aimed at showcasing national industrial power and the capture of new markets. Secondly, it documents the legal malleability and indeterminacy of patent rights and the role of courts in providing further definition of these rights largely to the benefit of intellectual property (IP) holders in the nineteenth century.