United States. The Wright brothers were granted U.S. Patent 821,393 for a “flying machine.” During their experiments in 1902, the Wrights successfully controlled their glider in all three axes of flight: pitch, roll, and yaw. Their revolutionary discovery was the simultaneous use of roll control by warping the wings and yaw control with a rear rudder. A front elevator controlled pitch. In March 1903, they applied for a patent for their control method. The application, which they had written themselves, was rejected. In early 1904, they hired Ohio patent attorney Henry Toulmin and on May 22, 1906, they were granted U.S. Patent 821,393 for a “flying machine.” The significance of the patent lies in its claim to a new and useful method of controlling an aircraft, whether powered or not. Soon afterward, numerous others involved in similar efforts at the time attempted to gain credit for their successes, justified or not. As noted in the New York Times in 1910, “A highly significant fact is that, until the Wright Brothers succeeded, all attempts at heavier-than-air machines were dismal failures, but since they proved it could be done, everyone seems to be able to do it.” This competition quickly escalated into a patent war that included 12 major lawsuits, widespread media coverage, and a covert effort by Glenn Curtiss and the Smithsonian Institution to discredit the Wright Brothers. By 1917, the two major patent holders, the Wright Company and the Curtiss Company, had effectively blocked the construction of new airplanes in the United States, which was desperately needed at the onset of World War I. The U.S. government, following a recommendation from the newly formed National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, pressured the industry to form a cross-licensing organization (in other words, a patent pool), the Manufacturer’s Aircraft Association. All aircraft manufacturers were required to join the association, and each member was required to pay a relatively small flat fee (for the use of aeronautical patents) for each airplane produced; the majority of this would go to the Wright-Martin and Curtiss companies until their respective patents expired. This agreement was designed to last only for the duration of the war, but in 1918 the lawsuit was never renewed. Meanwhile, Wilbur Wright had died (in May 1912), and Orville had sold his interest in the Wright Company to a group of New York financiers (in October 1915) and retired from the business. The lawsuits damaged the public image of the Wright brothers, who had previously been widely regarded as heroes. Critics argued that the brothers’ actions could hinder the development of aviation, and compared their actions unfavorably to those of European inventors, who worked more openly. The Aircraft Manufacturers Association was an early example of a government-mandated patent pool. It has been used as an example in recent cases, such as the management of patents for antiretroviral drugs for HIV to provide access to otherwise expensive treatments in Africa. The Curtiss and Wright organizations merged in 1929 to form the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, which still exists today.
