Patento.absurdium

The Wright Brothers are famous for their flight at Kitty Hawk, but very few people saw that 1903 flight and the Wrights spent the next several years working in secrecy, filing patents and trying to sign manufacturing contracts. By contrast, Glenn Curtiss, of Hammondsport, NY made the first public flight on July 4, 1908, before a cheering crowd of thousands. Curtiss' contribution to modern aviation, and the potential damage inflicted by an overt focus on patents, is discussed in the August 25 edition of NPR's All Things Considered. The story is an intriguing summary of the Wright-Curtiss rivalry, and holds several lessons for modern technology inventors.

Despite the Wright's fame for inventing the airplane it was Curtiss who sold the first commercial craft, became the first licensed pilot, and was the first to fly from one city to another. While the Wrights hid away their discoveries and attempted to lock them up with patents, Curtiss went about openly building and flying planes, engaging others to share ideas, and improving his machine.

Soon he was making better planes that the Wrights and Orville filed a suit for patent infringement. A protracted legal battle ensued, and the Wrights and Curtiss became bitter rivals. This lengthy dispute is the cause some now cite for the early lead of European flight development over that in the US. When WW1 erupted the US government intervened, ordering both companies out of the courts and back to work and, more importantly, preventing anyone from claiming sole use of aircraft technology for the next 50 years. It was in this environment of forced sharing that the US aviation industry flourished, becoming the clear leader in aviation technology well into the latter half of the 20th century.

The NPR story is a timely observation in this era of patent lunacy, when even bathroom queueing systems are being claimed as proprietary inventions. It is an interesting look back at one of the most fertile periods of technological growth, and makes the point that perhaps we should reconsider whether patents truly promote progress when we look at what their absence wrought.

Back thanks to Scott Walker for the pointer for the NPR story.