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Sewing Machine Combination
The Sewing Machine Combination or the Sewing Machine Trust was the first patent pool in US history. It was formed by the "Albany Agreement" of 24 October 1856 and lasted until its last patent expired in 1877. It existed for the purpose of reducing the licensing and litigation overhead being imposed by the patent thicket known as the Sewing Machine War. Prior to the Sewing Machine Combination, companies could purchase rights from Elias Howe for a royalty fee of $25 for every machine sold. In 1856, president of the Grover & Baker company, Orlando B. Potter, worked with Howe, Wheeler & Wilson, and Isaac Singer's I. M. Singer and Company to pool their patents and agree to terms of use. The requirements were: at least 24 manufacturers were to be licensed; the founding companies would equally share the profits; and Howe would receive a $5 royalty for each machine sold in the U.S. and $1 for exported machines. Interests only were pooled, prices were not set, and the market was open to f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patent Pool
In patent law, a patent pool is a consortium of at least two companies agreeing to cross-license patents relating to a particular technology. The creation of a patent pool can save patentees and licensees time and money, and, in case of blocking patents, it may also be the only reasonable method for making the invention available to the public. Competition law issues are usually important when a large consortium is formed. History In 1856, sewing machine manufacturers Grover & Baker, Singer, and Wheeler & Wilson, all accusing each other of patent infringement, met in Albany, New York to pursue their suits. Orlando B. Potter, a lawyer and president of Grover & Baker, proposed that, rather than squander their profits on litigation, they pool their patents. This was the first patent pool, a process which enables the production of complicated machines without legal battles over patent rights. In 1917, the two major patent holders for airplanes, the Wright Company and the Curtiss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling disclosure of the invention."A patent is not the grant of a right to make or use or sell. It does not, directly or indirectly, imply any such right. It grants only the right to exclude others. The supposition that a right to make is created by the patent grant is obviously inconsistent with the established distinctions between generic and specific patents, and with the well-known fact that a very considerable portion of the patents granted are in a field covered by a former relatively generic or basic patent, are tributary to such earlier patent, and cannot be practiced unless by license thereunder." – ''Herman v. Youngstown Car Mfg. Co.'', 191 F. 579, 584–85, 112 CCA 185 (6th Cir. 1911) In most countries, patent rights fall under private law ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patent Thicket
A patent thicket is "an overlapping set of patent rights" which requires innovators to reach licensing deals for multiple patents. This concept is associated with negative connotations and has been described as "a dense web of overlapping intellectual property rights that a company must hack its way through in order to actually commercialize new technology". Origin of the expression The expression may come from ''SCM Corp. v. Xerox Corp.,'' 645 F.2d 1195 (2d Cir. 1981), patent litigation case in the 1970s, wherein SCM's central charge had been that Xerox constructed a "patent thicket" to prevent competition. Uses and alternative names Patent thickets are used to defend against competitors designing around a single patent. It has been suggested by some that this is particularly true in fields such as software or pharmaceuticals, but Sir Robin Jacob has pointed out that "every patentee of a major invention is likely to come up with improvements and alleged improvements to his inv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sewing Machine War
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a sewing needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era. Before the invention of spinning yarn or weaving fabric, archaeologists believe Stone Age people across Europe and Asia sewed fur and leather clothing using bone, antler or ivory sewing-needles and "thread" made of various animal body parts including sinew, catgut, and veins. For thousands of years, all sewing was done by hand. The invention of the sewing machine in the 19th century and the rise of computerization in the 20th century led to mass production and export of sewn objects, but hand sewing is still practiced around the world. Fine hand sewing is a characteristic of high-quality tailoring, haute couture fashion, and custom dressmaking, and is pursued by both textile artists and hobbyists as a means of creative expression. The first known use of the word "sewing" was in the 14t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elias Howe
Elias Howe Jr. (; July 9, 1819October 3, 1867) was an American inventor best known for his creation of the modern lockstitch sewing machine. Early life Elias Howe Jr. was born on July 9, 1819, to Dr. Elias Howe Sr. and Polly (Bemis) Howe in Spencer, Massachusetts. Howe spent his childhood and early adult years in Massachusetts, where he apprenticed in a textile factory in Lowell beginning in 1835. After mill closings due to the Panic of 1837, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to work as a mechanic with carding machinery, apprenticing along with his cousin Nathaniel P. Banks. In the beginning of 1838, he apprenticed in the shop of Ari Davis, a master mechanic in Cambridge who specialized in the manufacture and repair of chronometers and other precision instruments. It was in the employ of Davis that Howe seized upon the idea of the sewing machine. He married Elizabeth Jennings Ames, daughter of Simon Ames and Jane B. Ames, on March 3, 1841, in Cambridge.Edmund Rice (1638 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grover & Baker
Grover is a blue Muppet character on the popular PBS/HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street''. Self-described as lovable, cute and furry, he is a blue monster who rarely uses contractions when he speaks or sings. Grover was originally performed by Frank Oz from his earliest appearances. Eric Jacobson has performed the character regularly from the year 2000 onwards. Origins A prototype version of Grover appeared on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' on Christmas Eve in 1967. This puppet had greenish-brown fur and a red nose. He also had a raspier voice – somewhat like Cookie Monster's – and was played a bit more unkempt than Grover would later behave. The monster was referred to as "Gleep", a monster in Santa's workshop. He later made a cameo appearance in ''The Muppets on Puppets'' in 1968 with the Rock and Roll Monster. In 1969, clad in a necktie, he appeared in the ''Sesame Street Pitch Reel'' in the board-room sequences. During the first season of ''Sesame Street'', the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orlando B
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released in July 2017, making it the 23rd-largest metropolitan area in the United States, the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the Southern United States, and the third-largest metropolitan area in Florida behind Miami and Tampa. Orlando had a population of 307,573 in the 2020 census, making it the 67th-largest city in the United States, the fourth-largest city in Florida, and the state's largest inland city. Orlando is one of the most-visited cities in the world primarily due to tourism, major events, and convention traffic; in 2018, the city drew more than 75 million visitors. The Orlando International Airport (MCO) is the 13th-busiest airport in the United States and the 29th-busiest in the world. The two largest and most inter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wheeler & Wilson
Wheeler & Wilson was an American company which produced sewing machines. The company was started as a partnership between Allen B. Wilson and Nathaniel Wheeler after Wheeler agreed to help Wilson mass-produce a sewing machine he designed. The two launched their enterprise in the early 1850s, and quickly gained widespread acclamation for their machines' designs. Both Wheeler and Wilson died in the late 19th century, resulting in the company's sale to the Singer Corporation. Shortly after, the Singer Corporation phased out Wheeler & Wilson's designs. The company sold a total of nearly 2,000,000 sewing machines during its existence. Company history Formation Throughout the late 1840s, Allen B. Wilson traveled throughout the United States as a journeyman, and conceived the idea for a sewing machine in 1847, unaware that it had already been invented. By 1848, Wilson moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and began creating drawings for a sewing machine, before eventually beginning c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Singer
Isaac Merritt Singer (October 27, 1811 – July 23, 1875) was an American inventor, actor, and businessman. He made important improvements in the design of the sewing machine and was the founder of what became one of the first American multi-national businesses, the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Many others, including Walter Hunt and Elias Howe, had patented sewing machines before Singer, but his success was based on the practicality of his machine, the ease with which it could be adapted to home use and its availability on an installments payment basis. Singer died in 1875, dividing his $13 million fortune unequally among 20 of his living children by his wives and various mistresses, although one son, who had supported his mother in her divorce case against Singer, received only $500. Altogether he fathered 26 children. Early life Isaac Merritt Singer was born on October 27, 1811, in Pittstown, Schaghticoke, New York. He was the youngest of eight children born to a Ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Singer Corporation
Singer Corporation is an American manufacturer of consumer sewing machines, first established as I. M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac Singer, Isaac M. Singer with New York lawyer Edward Cabot Clark, Edward C. Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Manufacturing Company in 1865, then the Singer Company in 1963. It is based in La Vergne, Tennessee, near Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville. Its first large factory for mass production was built in 1863 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. History Singer's original design was the first practical sewing machine for general domestic use. It incorporated the basic eye-pointed needle and Lockstitch, lock stitch, developed by Elias Howe, who won a patent-infringement suit against Singer in 1854. Singer obtained in August 1851 for an improved sewing machine that included a circular feed wheel, thread controller, and power transmitted by gear wheels and shafting. Singer consolidated enough patents in the field to enable him ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lockstitch
A lockstitch is the most common mechanical stitch made by a sewing machine. The term "single needle stitching", often found on dress shirt labels, refers to lockstitch. Structure The lockstitch uses two threads, an upper and a lower. Lockstitch is named because the two threads, upper and lower, "lock" (entwine) together in the hole in the fabric which they pass through. The upper thread runs from a spool kept on a spindle on top of or next to the machine, through a tension mechanism, through the take-up arm, and finally through the hole in the needle. Meanwhile, the lower thread is wound onto a bobbin, which is inserted into a case in the lower section of the machine below the material. To make one stitch, the machine lowers the threaded needle through the cloth into the bobbin area, where a rotating hook (or other hooking mechanism) catches the upper thread at the point just after it goes through the needle. The hook mechanism carries the upper thread entirely around the bob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sewing Machines
A sewing machine is a machine used to sew fabric and materials together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies. Since the invention of the first sewing machine, generally considered to have been the work of Englishman Thomas Saint in 1790, the sewing machine has greatly improved the efficiency and productivity of the clothing industry. Home sewing machines are designed for one person to sew individual items while using a single stitch type at a time. In a modern sewing machine, the process of stitching has been automated so that the fabric easily glides in and out of the machine without the inconvenience of needles, thimbles and other tools used in hand sewing. Early sewing machines were powered by either constantly turning a handle or with a foot-operated treadle mechanism. Electrically-powered machines were later introduced. Industrial sewing machines, by co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
