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This is where it all began, and what ultimately caused such a stir at the 1893 World’s Expo in Chicago.
A war was leveled ever-after between the vision of Edison and the vision of Tesla for how electricity
would be produced and distributed. The division can be summarized as one of cost and safety: The
DC current that Edison (backed by General Electric) had been working on was costly over long
distances, and produced dangerous sparking from the required converter (called a commutator).
Regardless, Edison and his backers utilized the general “dangers” of electric current to instill fear in
Nikola Tesla’s alternative: Alternating Current. As proof, Edison sometimes electrocuted animals at
demonstrations. Consequently, Edison gave the world the electric chair, while simultaneously
maligning Tesla’s attempt to offer safety at a lower cost. Tesla responded by demonstrating that AC
was perfectly safe by famously shooting current through his own body to produce light. This
Edison-Tesla (GE-Westinghouse) feud in 1893 was the culmination of over a decade of shady
business deals, stolen ideas, and patent suppression that Edison and his moneyed interests wielded
over Tesla’s inventions. Yet, despite it all, it is Tesla’s system that provides power generation and
distribution to North America in our modern era.
LEGAL TERMINOLOGY
Inventor: Someone who has a new idea and pursues its development. Inventors
apply for patents on their inventions as a part of developing their invention. Many
inventors are also product developers, entrepreneurs and businessmen and most
inventors find it good marketing practice to sell themselves as product developers
or, entrepreneurs or businessman, as the term inventor often having a bad
connotation to a business man.
Label license: A statement that the purchase of the labeled goods gives a license to
use them in a patented process.
LEGAL TERMINOLOGY
Patent: A grant by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that allows the
patent owner to maintain a monopoly for a limited period of time on the use and
development of a new innovation.
Prosecution: The process in which an inventor or his lawyer engage with the patent
office to obtain a patent and determine the scope of its claims.
Claim: The part of a patent specification that defines the legal scope of the
protection sought by an inventor. Each claim is a single sentence in a legalistic form
that defines an invention and its unique technical features. A valid claim is one that
reads on the invention described in the specification but does not read on any prior
art. Each and every Claim must be clear and concise and supported by the
description.
RELEVANT LEGAL INSTRUMENT