Their Patent Battles

New York World, March 6, 1910 -- There seems to be much indignation in France about the attitude of Wilbur and Orville Wright over their patents. Some of the adverse opinion is real, some manufactured. On the other hand there is much public sentiment in the Wright's favor.

This is voiced in La Liberte, an evening newspaper, which says: "The Wrights ask only for royalty which certainly is due them. They have a perfect right to protect their patents. Sympathy should go out to them as inventors and pioneers, not as mere chauffuers or mechanicians who learn to pilot aeroplanes." (Quoted from: Carpenter, Jack p.253)

After several rejected applications, the Wright brothers finally achieved patent protection for "an alleged new and useful improvement in Flying-Machines." The detailed drawings at left accompanied a 1908 Wright patent application. (Crouch, Tom D. and Jakab, Peter L. p.141)

This was what the Wrights fought for -- their patents. Anyone flying and using their "wing warping system" was brought to the courts, since the brothers believed everyone flying at the time was stealing their idea, when this system was the only way to successfully take to the air.

     "The Wright Brothers were bitter. All around them pilots were profiting hugely from an invention which they had perfected for the world; without their wing-warping system none of it would have happened, certainly not as quickly. They held patents... in all the leading aviation countries and they demanded royalties from any pilot using the system and flying for profit. If the pilot did not pay up, and many did not, they went to the courts. They made no exceptions -- Paulhan, Grahame-White and others had writs served on them at air meets by Wright lawyers, and promoters of meets received demands for twenty per cent of the posted prize money and ten per cent of the gate receipts. But they reserved their harshest treatment for Glenn Curtiss who was selling aircraft in direct competition to them.
    "Litigation began to dominate their lives, and Wilbur especially spent long periods in the courts giving expert evidence against Curtiss. But it was a hopeless task. There were too many people flying, and even when they were awarded judgement the battles continued; there was always another pilot or promoter to sue or an appeal to attend. They would not settle out of court. It's hard to fathom what it was that made them go on; it had to be something more than money."

Ivan Rendall (Carpenter, Jack Pendulum II pp.288-289)

The Wright brothers were reluctant to share their triumph. Shy men who were happiest working in their garage workshop, they had no desire to become celebrities. Asked to make a speech, Wilbur said that he knew of only one bird -- the parrot -- that talks, and it didn't fly very high. They also did not want to let their competition know what they had accomplished.

In the next few years they modified and improved their design and took out patents on everything in their machines. Maybe they wanted to perfect the design themselves, and maybe they were trying to protect their inventions. Whatever the reason, their attempts to beat the competition hampered the development and improvement of aircraft. And their actions did not win them public support. (Alter, Judy p.195-196)

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