No Copyright Law: The Real Reason for Germany’s Industrial Expansion? (2010)
I had no idea about the situation in Germany, but it's a well-known fact that the current power of the Swiss chemical and pharmaceutical industry comes from the lack of patents law in Switzerland during the late 19th century[1]: a few French chemists moved to Switzerland to circumvent the French patents.<p>A well-known example is Alexander Clavel who, in 1859, founded Ciba AG, a silk-dyeing business using a French patent with no license. Ciba later became Ciba-Geigy, which later became Novartis. One of the biggest pharma corp in the world today.<p>Source: Swiss National Museum, Zurich.<p>[1] : Patents were only introduced in the Swiss law in 1907.