(abbreviated D.R.P.) stands for German imperial patent. Such a patent registration was based on the Reichspatentgesetz, the German imperial patent law, which had been verified by the German authorities on May 25th 1877.
The decision had not been easy at all, in fact the first ideas for such a law had actually been discussed by the Prussian Board of Trade back in July 1853. Even if it had taken 24 years for the authorities to set it up, its introduction was on extreme short notice as it was declared operational as from July 1st 1877, a mere month after its verification. Responsible office for such registrations was the Kaiserliche(s) Patentamt.
Of course such a unified patent law was quite spectacular, unlike the first registered patents. R.P. #1 for example was issued on the name of the businessman Johannes Zeltner who owned the Nürnberger Ultramarinfabrik. He patented his method of synthetically manufacturing Ultramarine, a coloring substance that is still used today. R.P. #532 was issued to Nikolaus August Otto and covered an extremely peculiar device he had simply named Otto engine. Inventor Rudolf Diesel needed a bit longer, his engine was patented under R.P. #67207 on February 23rd 1893.
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