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Innovation is on the agenda of all scientific policies without really being defined. The study of the evolution of the works that argued to have defined a consisting concept of innovation (Bacon, Machiavelli), or developed a coherent theory of innovation (Tarde, Rogers, Schumpeter), provides insight into some weakness of the models of the innovation process (“linear theory”, “chain-linked model”), or even into the contradictions that are occulted by a naïve use of the concept. Innovation therefore appears as a “watchword” legitimizing that “everything changes so that nothing changes”.JEL codes: O31, O31, G38, O32, B25