From the earliest days of the motor car industry, before the A.L.A.M. was established, patent infringement loomed as a serious and vexing problem.

One of the conditions of the pool was a prohibition upon the withholding of patent rights among A.L.A.M. members.

The prevailing view in the industry was summed up in 1912 by a group of auto makers who told a Senate committee: `` The exceedingly unsatisfactory and uselessly expensive conditions, including delays surrounding legal disputes, particularly in patent litigation, are items of industrial burden which must be written large in figures of many millions of dollars of industrial waste ''.

By that time it was commonly agreed that patent warfare was sapping constructive achievement and blocking the free exchange of technical information.

The idea was never commercialized, but Lincoln is the only president to hold a patent.

*( c ) It may be granted upon condition, cujus est dare, ejus est disponere, and this denization of an alien may come about three ways: by Parliament ; by letters patent, which was the usual manner ; and by conquest.

He was stationed in San Francisco from 1869 through 1871 and he took out a patent for the cable car railway that still runs there, receiving a charter for its operation, but signing away his rights when he was reassigned.

At that time, the ENIAC was considered to be the first computer in the modern sense, but in 1973 a U. S. District Court invalidated the ENIAC patent and concluded that the ENIAC inventors had derived the subject matter of the electronic digital computer from Atanasoff ( see Patent dispute ).

The United States District Court for the District of Minnesota released its judgement on October 19, 1973, finding in Honeywell v. Sperry Rand that the ENIAC patent was a derivative of John Atanasoff's invention.

The case was legally resolved on October 19, 1973 when U. S. District Judge Earl R. Larson held the ENIAC patent invalid, ruling that the ENIAC derived many basic ideas from the Atanasoff – Berry Computer.

The first proposal for a tank was by the Austrian Oberleutenant Günther Burstyn who, in 1911, proposed a design for " motor artillery " ( Motorengeschütz ) with a turret, but his design never progressed beyond a German patent in 1912.

Later that year the PTO issued a decision rejecting the patent, on the basis that the petitioners ' arguments that the plant was not " distinctive or novel " were valid.

A. Panitz's patent, was developed by Mike Miller starting in 1983 and culminated with the first prototype in 1986.

Watterson was born in Washington, D. C., where his father, James G. Watterson ( born 1932 ), worked as a patent examiner while going to George Washington University Law School before becoming a patent attorney in 1960.

The Bakelite Corporation was formed in 1922 ( after patent litigation favorable to Baekeland ) from a merger of three companies: the General Bakelite Company which Baekeland founded in 1910, the Condensite Company, founded by J. W.

The first patent on a ballpoint pen was issued on 30 October 1888, to John Loud, a leather tanner, who was attempting to make a writing instrument that would be able to write on his leather products, which then-common fountain pens could not do.

Slavoljub Eduard Penkala invented a solid-ink fountain pen in 1907, a German inventor named Baum took out a ballpoint patent in 1910, and yet another ballpoint pen device was patented by Van Vechten Riesburg in 1916.

It was based on a patent of 1883 by James Cleminson, and was once popular on narrow-gauge rolling stock, e. g. on the Isle of Man and Manx Northern Railways.

Originally intended as a patent medicine when it was invented in the late 19th century by John Pemberton, Coca-Cola was bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler, whose marketing tactics led Coke to its dominance of the world soft-drink market throughout the 20th century.

Legal action by the Indian government followed, with the patent eventually being overturned in 2005.

Otto's patent on this engine was later challenged and overturned.

Otto's engine was patented in 1877, but the patent was soon challenged and overturned.

His " American Junior " company was by far the biggest producer of models, and held numerous patents on the two-line system until overturned during a patent infridgement suit, by Walker, against Leroy Cox, based on " prior art " from St. Clair in the 1955 trial.

The second patent was overturned, but not before he had become a very rich man.

The patent was overturned in 1999 ; however, in 2001, the US Patent Office reinstated the patent because the law at the time the patent was granted did not allow a third party such as COICA standing to object.

A related company Mirror Worlds, LLC recently had their patent infringement verdict against Apple, Inc. overturned in the Eastern District of Texas.

Lilly Icos filed a complaint in a London court in September 1999, and the patent was overturned in November 2000 on the grounds that Pfizer's patent was based on information already in the public domain when the patent was issued.

It was based on an invention by Thomas Highs and the patent was later overturned.

The Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences agreed with the original decision ; however, the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals overturned the case in Chakrabarty's favor, writing that " the fact that micro-organisms are alive is without legal significance for purposes of the patent law.

However, other companies saw the attraction of the bag, too, and the US petrochemicals group Mobil overturned Celloplast's US patent in 1977.

Moreover, Reinhold Rudenberg, the scientific director of Siemens-Schuckertwerke, obtained the patent for the electron microscope in May 1931.

A patent application for IDEA was first filed in Switzerland ( CH A 1690 / 90 ) on May 18, 1990, then an international patent application was filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty on May 16, 1991.

( According to the PGP FAQ, the US patent expired on May 25, 2010.

Edison sued to gain control of the patent ; however, after a federal court upheld the validity of the patent in 1907, Edison began negotiation with Biograph in May 1908 to reorganize the Edison licensing system.

The patent 474, 230 was granted 3 May 1892, after a 15 year delay because of litigation.

Williams and Kilburn applied for British patents on Dec. 11, 1946 and Oct. 2, 1947, followed by US patent applications on Dec. 10, 1947 () and May 16, 1949 ().

* May 11 – The patent for an Exhaust muffler for engines was awarded to Milton and Marshall Reeves of Columbus, Indiana.

* May 17 – Nikolaus Otto files his patent for the four-stroke cycle internal combustion engine.

* May 20 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U. S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.

* May 25, 1827 – Romanian inventor Petrache Poenaru receives a French patent for the invention of the first fountain pen with a replaceable ink cartridge.

* May 6, 1829 – The patent for an instrument called the accordion is applied for by Cyrill Demian ( Officially approved on May 23.

* May 6 – The patent for an instrument called the accordion is applied for by Cyrill Demian ( Officially approved on May 23.

* May 16 – Angelo Moriondo of Turin is granted a patent for an espresso machine.

* May 25 – Romanian inventor Petrache Poenaru receives a French patent for the invention of the first fountain pen with a replaceable ink cartridge.

Hancock was awarded a British patent on May 21, 1844.

In an agreement between John Ferrabee and Edwin Budding dated May 18, 1830, Ferrabee paid the costs of development, obtained letters of patent and acquired rights to manufacture, sell and license other manufacturers in the production of lawn mowers.

In letters patent dated 28 May 1937, King George VI specifically denied the style HRH to the wife of HRH The Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII.

An American company, Blackburn Aircraft Corp., was incorporated in Detroit on 20 May 1929 to acquire design and patent rights of the aircraft of Blackburn Airplane & Motor Co., Ltd. in the USA.