Important developments in patent law emerged during the 18th century through a slow process of judicial interpretation of the law. During the reign of Queen Anne, patent applications were required to supply a complete specification of the principles of operation of the invention for public access.Legal battles around the 1796 patent taken out by James Watt for his steam engine, established the principles that patents could be issued for improvements of an already existing machine and that ideas or principles without specific practical application could also legally be patented.Influenced by the philosophy of John Locke, the granting of patents began to be viewed as a form of intellectual property right, rather than simply the obtaining of economic privilege.It is intended to smooth out and orchestrate formal prerequisites set by national or provincial Patent Offices regarding the documenting of national or territorial patent applications and the upkeep of licenses and certain extra necessities identified with licenses or patent applications, for instance, correspondences, portrayal or recordation of changes concerning licenses and patent applications.