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Edwin Armstrong won his patent infringement case against his old friend
David Sarnoff over the invention of the FM radio, but that the stress
of the several-year-long battle -- which included one year on the witness
stand -- proved to be too much for Armstrong. Worn down by the lengthy
litigation, Armstrong killed himself before his victory was won.
Armstrong didn't fare much better in his earlier court battles with Lee
DeForest over the regenerative circuit. In this case, DeForest, who sued
Armstrong, lost the case almost every step of the way. But in a last-ditch
appeal before the Supreme Court, DeForest won, because the judge misunderstood
the technical facts of the case. (However, the scientific community
sided with Armstrong against the courts.)
According to intellectual property litigation attorney Joe Hosteny,
this case shows the fallibility of the judicial process -- especially
in patent litigation cases involving complex technology. "Here we
have an invention that was extremely difficult for the layman to understand,
and every account of this court battle attests to the fact that the judge
may have been in over his head. Or Armstrong's lawyers may not have helped
enough. A technical case has to be simplified. So a good intellectual
property litigation attorney will replace the technical jargon and patent
lingo with everyday words. In addition, he or she will use analogies and
eliminate all non-essential details. A smart inventor will watch for these
signs when hiring a lawyer.
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