Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Wright brothers patent war" in English language version.
This unusual arrangement could have been interpreted as a violation of antitrust law, but fortunately it was not. It served a clear economic purpose: preventing the holder of a single patent on a critical component from holding up creation of an entire aircraft. Practically, the pool had no effect on either market structure or technological advances. Speed, safety, and reliability of US made airplanes improved steadily over the years the pool existed (up to 1975). Over that time several firms held large shares of the commercial aircraft market: Douglas, Boeing, Lockheed, Convair, and Martin, but no one of them dominated it for very long.
Dr. Kaplan also explained that in the past the government has effectively used a patent pool to give a group compulsory license on a large number of patents, using in particular the 1917 example involving aircraft patents, a pool created at the advice of then Assistant Secretary of the Navy FDR, to overcome the blocking patents held by the Wright Company and the Curtiss Company. It would be interesting to think about an HIV patent pool being created in South Africa, for example, to permit access into the market for products that treat HIV, or to create a US R&D patent pool that all recipients of US NIH funds could be required to join. Here are some sections from that White Paper
In 1917, as a result of a recommendation of a committee formed by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (The Honorable Franklin D. Roosevelt), an aircraft patent pool was privately formed encompassing almost all aircraft manufacturers in the United States. The creation of the Manufacturer's Aircraft Association was crucial to the U.S. government because the two major patent holders, the Wright Company and the Curtiss Company, had effectively blocked the building of any new airplanes, which were desperately needed as the United States was entering World War I.
It is not disputed that every person who is using this system today owes it to us and to us alone. The French aviators freely admit it
It is our view that morally the world owes its almost universal use of our system of lateral control entirely to us. It is also our opinion that legally it owes it to us
New Organization Is Formed, Under War Pressure, to Interchange Patents. Big Royalties to Be Paid: Wright and Curtiss Interests Each to Receive Ultimately $2,000,000 – Increased Production Predicted. Payment of Royalties.
basically, after 1903, after the Kitty Hawk flight, the Wright brothers never again made any real, significant scientific contribution to the field of aeronautics(...)some "scholars" have suggested that the Wrights' insistence in enforcing the patents may have retarded the development of aviation(...)
In my view, such a move would have a significant negative effect on the stock market and the drive for innovation that has produced so many antiretroviral drugs so quickly. However, the U.S. government clearly needs to exert more leadership and contribute considerably more funds to the worldwide AIDS struggle. So, in the meantime, a debate about non-voluntary patent pools and other approaches is called for.
basically, after 1903, after the Kitty Hawk flight, the Wright brothers never again made any real, significant scientific contribution to the field of aeronautics(...)some "scholars" have suggested that the Wrights' insistence in enforcing the patents may have retarded the development of aviation(...)
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