Post 9 History of Patent Law (and War) Part 3

Here is what I want to bring about the history of patent war: the Wright brothers patent war. This case just shows the central argument of whether patents really fortified its main purpose: to reward inventors and to encourage more inventions. As we all know, the Wright brothers had invented and built the world's first flyable airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight on December 17, 1903. This revolutionary and world-changing invention, of course, was granted as one of the most valuable patent. In fact, their patent - the 3-axes flight control of pitch, roll and yaw are still being use as even in the most advance aircraft nowadays.

This U.S. Patent 821393 specified their flight control system . Since this invention was so fundamental, other foreign and domestic aviators and companies, especially another U.S. aviation pioneer, Glenn Curtiss, adopted a very similar flight control system in their airplane designs. The first sign of the patent war started in 1908, when the Wrights brothers warned Glenn Curtiss not to infringe their patent by profiting from flying or selling aircraft. But Curtiss refused to pay license fees to the Wrights and sold an airplane to the Aeronautic Society of New York in the next year after Wrights warning. The Wright brothers filed lawsuits to multiple aviators including Curtiss, beginning a years-long legal conflict. While Wright brothers got their full victory in US courts, they were only partly successful in European courts.  Legal maneuvering dragged in France until the patent expired in 1917. Meanwhile, German court ruled the patent not valid due to prior disclosure in speeches by Wright (thus the content of the invention was no longer new/latest). Still, the Wright brother patent war suppressed aviation development in the U.S. to such an extent that when the country entered World War I, no acceptable American-designed aircraft were available, and U.S. forces were compelled to use French machines.

Ultimately, US government, which desperately needed more aircraft for its entering of WWI, proposed a patent pool solution between the Wright Company and the Curtiss Company. A committee formed by president Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Assistant Secretary of the Navy pressured the industry to form a cross-licensing organization, the Manufacturer's Aircraft Association. This arrangement was designed to last only for the duration of the war, but in 1918, the litigation was never renewed. And the patent war ended as the death of Wright brothers.

The lawsuits damaged the public image of the Wright brothers, who previously had been generally regarded as heroes. This patent war also led to a government-enforced patent pool. Despite the wireless device industry today is a totally different situation from the aviation industry in the early 20th century, I think the industry should learn from the mistake and avoid falling into the same path as the patent war started by the Wright brothers, where lawsuits ultimately hurts the industry.