3 ms·

Edison bulb and it's associated patents freed the public from combustion light or otherwise dark evenings...

• kybernetikos 14y ago
  Actually, a large number of people were working on the light bulb at the same time, and Edison's patent probably slowed down the pace of innovation by making it harder for inventors in the USA (apparently 'the Board of Patent Control' filed over 600 lawsuits for patent infringement) to work on the problem and shrinking the size of the market for inventors working overseas. Edison is a poor example anyway, since he was basically a patent troll in this case (found guilty of patent infringment in a UK court) and was only able to work because he had ignored a UK patent (Swan's). Had he been abided by it, he could have made no contribution (Shock! He 'stole' the idea!). He improved on Swans design, but at the same time Swan also improved on his design. When Edison had his breakthrough, Swan had already installed electric lighting in a number of houses and when the two finally collaborated, the joint company used Swans newer design which was the better of the two. Wikipedia has this to say: "In America, Edison had been working on copies of the original light bulb patented by Swan, trying to make them more efficient. Though Swan had beaten him to this goal, Edison obtained patents in America for a fairly direct copy of the Swan light, and started an advertising campaign that claimed that he was the real inventor. Swan, who was less interested in making money from the invention, agreed that Edison could sell the lights in America while he retained the rights in Britain." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Swan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Swan