증폭진공관에 대한 드포리스트와암스트롱의 특허분쟁의 역사 = Research on Patent Litigation between Lee de Forest and Edwin H. Armstrong over the Regenerating Audion

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The regeneration audion was simultaneously invented in 1912-13 by Edwan H. Armstrong, Lee de Forest and others. Priority disputes and patent litigation over who first invented it began in 1915. The US Supreme Court finally decided in 1934 that Lee de Forest’s patents on this invention be sustained, which meant in a legal sense that de Forest was the inventor of the regeneration circuit. During these twenty years, de Forest and Armstrong fought 13 times in the court. Many historians of radio consider that this is the most complicated patent litigation in the history of radio. Why was it so complicated? What were the issues in dispute in litigation? This paper aims to examine these legal and technical issues critically, and provide some answers to these questions. For this, it will first discuss how Armstrong and de Forest invented their artifacts during 1912-1915. Then, this paper focuses on the legal disputes between 1915 and 1928. The Armstrong-de Forest dispute was reopened in 1932, which is the subject of a separate section. In conclusion, I will argue that what was in dispute was not simply about who first made the invention of the regeneration audion, but was about the very definition of “invention” as well as what the “regeneration audion” was.