Wright brothers patent war

The Wright brothers patent war centers on the patent that the Wright brothers received for their method of airplane flight control. They were two Americans who are widely credited with inventing and building the world's first flyable airplane and making the first controlled, powered, and sustained heavier-than-air human flight on December 17, 1903.

In 1906, the Wrights received a U.S. patent for their method of flight control. In 1909, they sold the patent to the newly-formed Wright Company in return for $100,000 in cash, 40% of the company's stock, and a 10% royalty on all aircraft sold. Investors who contributed $1,000,000 to the company included Cornelius Vanderbilt, Theodore P. Shonts, Allan A. Ryan, and Morton F. Plant. That company waged a patent war, initially in an attempt to secure a monopoly on U.S. aircraft manufacturing. Unable to do so, it adjusted its legal strategy by suing foreign and domestic aviators and companies, especially another U.S. aviation pioneer, Glenn Curtiss, in an attempt to collect licensing fees.

In 1910, they won their initial lawsuit against Curtiss, when Federal Judge John Hazel ruled that the defendants were using the infringing machine for gain and profit, and it was the duty of the Court to enjoin such use. Of the nine suits brought by them and three against them, the Wright brothers eventually won every case in U.S. courts. Even after Wilbur Wright had died, and Orville Wright had retired in 1916 (selling the rights to their patent to a successor company, the Wright-Martin Corp.), the patent war continued, and even expanded, as other manufacturers launched lawsuits of their own—creating a growing crisis in the U.S. aviation industry.

Patent

The Wright brothers discovered a way to control their airplane in all directions during their experiments in 1902. They applied for a patent on this method but were rejected. In 1906, they received U.S. patent 821,393 for their "Flying Machine."

This patent was important because it described a new way to control airplanes, whether powered or not. It talked about wing-warping but also mentioned other methods like ailerons, which later became common. This idea of controlling the airplane's sides became crucial for almost all airplane designs, except for some ultralight aircraft. The Wrights believed that anyone using their method of control owed it to them. They won lawsuits against other early pilots who used similar control methods.

Patent war

After the Wright brothers showed their airplane to the world, many others wanted to claim credit for similar achievements. This led to a big legal battle known as the patent war. The Wright brothers had a patent for their method of controlling an airplane, and they sued others who used it without permission.

In 1908, they warned a pilot named Glenn Curtiss not to use their invention. When he ignored them, they took him to court. They also sued other pilots, including a famous French aviator named Louis Paulhan. The lawsuits caused problems for airplane development in the United States. By the time World War I began, American forces had to use planes from France because no American planes were good enough. The legal battles continued for many years, affecting the growth of aviation in the U.S.

Post-Wright patent battles

After Orville Wright left their company in 1916, he sold his share of a key patent to the Wright-Martin Corporation, which had combined his company with that of Glenn L. Martin. This company wanted to make money from the patent, so they continued to fight other airplane makers in court and asked for payments from them.

At the same time, Glenn Curtiss also used his own patents to increase the cost of making airplanes. This made many airplane makers scared and some decided to stop making airplanes. This was a problem because the war in Europe was growing, and the U.S. Army and Navy needed more airplanes but found it hard to get enough from manufacturers.

Patent pool solution

In 1917, two big companies that owned important airplane patents, the Wright Company and the Curtiss Company, were stopping new airplanes from being built. This was a problem because the United States needed planes for World War I. The government asked these companies to create a group where everyone could share patents, called a patent pool. This group was named the Manufacturer's Aircraft Association.

All airplane makers had to join this group and pay a small fee for using the patents. Most of the money went to the Wright-Martin and Curtiss companies until their patents ended. This plan was only for the war, and after the war, the legal fights stopped. By then, Orville Wright had left the business.

Aftermath

The lawsuits against the Wright brothers hurt their reputation, as people had once seen them as heroes. Some critics believed their legal actions slowed down the growth of aviation, especially when compared to inventors in Europe who shared their work more openly.

The Manufacturers Aircraft Association became an early example of a government-enforced patent pool. Later, similar ideas were used in cases involving HIV and antiretroviral drug patents to help make treatments more affordable in Africa. In 1929, the companies led by Curtiss and Wright merged to create the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, which is still operating today.

Prior art

There are different ideas about who first invented the aileron for controlling airplanes. In 1868, an inventor named Matthew Piers Watt Boulton patented ailerons, but his work was forgotten for many years. Another inventor, John J. Montgomery from America, worked on ways to control gliders with wing movements around the same time as the Wright brothers. A New Zealander named Richard Pearse claimed to have flown a plane with small ailerons in 1902, but his stories are not always clear. Later, a French inventor named Robert Esnault-Pelterie built a glider with ailerons in 1904, which was the first time they were actually used. Over the next few years, more inventors, including Glenn Curtiss, began using ailerons in their aircraft designs.