The Telephone Patent Follies: How the Invention of the Phone Was Bell’s, and Not Gray’s, Or…

The owner of a patent is protected against others “making, using, or selling the invention in the United States” (US Patent Office Website) for a number of years, after which the patented object is fair game and can be made, used, or sold by anyone.)

(although the ringer for the phone wasn’t invented by Bell, it was invented by Watson, Bell’s assistant).)

Even after Bell got his telephone working, it wasn’t perfect; the transmitter (the part one spoke into, that then changed sound waves into electrical current) wasn’t powerful enough to operate at great distances (see How Phones Work for more on this). It took Thomas Edison, inventor of a great many things, including the incandescent light bulb and the phonograph, to improve the phone so that it became practical for public use.)

There were many more applications for telephone-like devices, and most claimed Bell’s original application was for an object that wouldn’t work as described. Bell and his partners weathered these, but at such a great cost that they tried to sell the patent rights to Western Union, the giant telegraph company, in late 1876 for $100,000.)

But Western Union refused, because at the time they thought the telephone would never amount to anything. After all, why would anyone want a telephone? They could already communicate long-distance through the telegraph, and early phones had poor transmission quality and were limited in range.)

Western Union’s mind changed within a year as they began to sense the impending importance of the phone, but at that point the rights were no longer offered. Bell and his partners had by then set up the Bell Telephone Company, and business was starting to look quite good indeed.)

So Western Union turned around and entered into agreements with Gray, Edison, and others for their inventions, and with the advantages of Edison’s transmitter and an already-existing wiring infrastructure across the country, they looked to become the dominant force in telecom history—which is why, in 1878, Bell’s lawyers sued Western Union for patent infringement.)

What made the lawsuit interesting was that both parties owned different patents having to do with the telephone. Bell, of course, had the rights to the telephone itself, plus various rights for the receiver, their own transmitter (inferior to Edison’s), and other bits. Western Union, through Gray and Edison and others, had licenses for the rights to the carbon transmitter and the induction coil (which Bell may have been using in its own phones without permission). And of course Western Union argued that Gray had the real rights to the telephone, and not Bell.)

November 10, 1879, Bell Telephone won its lawsuit and Western Union was forced to give up its telephone patents (including Edison’s transmitter) and its tens of thousands of phones and subscribers; in return, it received 20 percent of Bell rentals for the 17 year life of Bell’s patents.)

The next year, Bell’s victory in the courts was made complete when the British government also ruled against Edison in a lawsuit brought against The Edison Telephone Company of London, and the stage was set for Bell’s emergence as the giant of the telecom business, with 133,000 telephones. The Bell system remained a monopolistic force in the industry in the US until it was forced to break up in 1984.)