Orville Wright to Griffith Brewer 16-July-1913
Encloses signed copies of Belgian patents.
Orville has informed Paul Coulomb, his patent solicitor in Paris, that he intends to pay no further taxes on European patents. He is down on European patents and mentions the written decision of the German Supreme Court ("which by the way is very different from the oral decision" — also see Katharine Wright to Alexander Ogilvie 27-Feb-1913) as evidence that his patents will not be respected. He offers the British Wright Company the opportunity to take on the Wrights' European patents.
Orville suggests that the Court's written decision was written by a different judge than the one who presided over the case. He recalls that the presiding judge had interrupted the opposing lawyers to point out that their examples of non-Wright aircraft didn't actually fly. Apparently the written decision backpedals its endorsements of the Wright claim on wing warping as a basic technology:
The written decision states that the use of the vertical rudder, according to the experts called by the Court, is absolutely necessary for maintaining lateral equilibrium; more necessary, if anything, than the warping itself; and that this function of the rudder was disclosed in our original application in the patent office files; but that this function of the rudder was not properly understood by the examiner, and as a result the original specification was amended in a way to indicate that the vertical rudder serves solely for steering in a horizontal plane. The decision then gives some suggestion on how we ought to have taken out our patent! The decision holds, however, that in spite of our own disclosures and our mistakes in taking out our patent, etc. we still had the claim for the mechanical coupling of the warping and the rudder! The attempt to make the present decision appear to agree with the oral decision in the matter of warping per se is so childish that any court with any self-respect ought to be ashamed of it.
Orville thanks Brewer for translations from a recent French decision. He infers from his French stockholders' reluctance to back him that they believe his prospects in France are bad. He, in turn, does not want to commit more money.
"I have been watching the progress of your negotiations with the English government with interest, and I am glad to have information on it as it goes along."
Sources
| Sender | Orville Wright |
|---|---|
| Recipient | Griffith Brewer |
| Date sent | 16-July-1913 |
| From location | Dayton, Ohio |
| To location | |
| Communication type | |
| Language | English |
| Refers to flight? | 1 |
| Tech fields | airplane, rudder, wing warping, navigation, coupling |
| Length (in words) | |
| Full text available |
