An empirical investigation of the alleged early US radio patent "thicket" and the Government ban on civil radio during World War 1

An empirical investigation of the alleged early US radio patent "thicket" and the Government ban on civil radio during World War 1

Journal article

1 online resource

Multiple pioneer vacuum tube patents in the early United States (US) Radio Industry are alleged to have formed a patent "thicket" that under a 1916 US district court decision retarded triode vacuum tube-based development and hence the development of US broadcast radio. The alleged retardation was purportedly relieved by the 1919 formation of the cross-licensing agreement for the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). We test the retardation contention with a novel dataset of triode vacuum tube-based patents applied for during 1904–1924. We treat patenting activity as indicative of development activity. We find no significant change in the relevant normalised triode patenting activities before and after the 1916 court decision, or the formation of RCA. The assertion of these pioneer patents caused no retardation of development, and there was no significant change in development after the formation of RCA. Secondly, a US government ban on civil radio use during World War 1 rendered the government the dominant user in the radio market for over two years until 1919. We find that the relevant normalised radio-triode patenting activity decreased during the ban period and recovered after the ban was lifted. We conclude that during the government ban there was preferential allocation of triode development resources to non-radio development. With the return of civil radio markets there was a shift in allocation of development resources to radio development. Allegations of hindered *209 development in contemporary alleged patent "thickets" should not be accepted unless accompanied by supporting empirical evidence.

Crossref

Intellectual Property Quarterly ; I.P.Q. 2025, 3, 208-240

[New York, NY] : Thomson Reuters, 2025.

English

https://1.next.westlaw.com/Copyright

External Online Journals > Intellectual Property Quarterly