Tesla Sues Marconi on Wireless Patent

Alleges That Important Apparatus Infringes Prior Rights Granted to Him.

BASIC PRINCIPLES INVOLVED

Marconi Company Manager Claims Ownership of All Underlying Wireless Inventions.

A suit brought by Nikola Tesla against the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, seeking the annulment of one of the chief Marconi patents, will have its first public argument in the United States District Court tomorrow, when counsel for Mr. Tesla will seek to have the court strike out nine paragraphs in the Marconi Company's answer to Mr. Tesla's complaint. Simultaneously with the suit for the annulment Mr. Tesla has brought a suit against the Marconi Company for infringement of his patents.

This litigation is a new development in the Marconi Company's claim to ownership of all basic patent rights in the transmission of wireless messages. In a number of other wireless patent suits against companies and individuals, that Marconi Company is the plaintiff, and though a defendant in this latest litigation, Edward J. Nally, Vice President and General Manager of the Marconi Company, believes that Mr. Tesla's suit will serve as one of the mediums through which the Marconi Company hopes to establish the broad claim of its right to all basic wireless patents.

The dispute over patent rights between the Marconi Company and Mr. Tesla began in August, 1914, when the Marconi Company sued Fritz Lowenstein, a German engineer, alleging that certain wireless apparatus sold by him to the United States Navy was made in violation of Marconi patent 763,772. It was announced then that "Mr. Tesla would testify for Mr. Lowenstein, alleging that the Lowenstein devices were developed from Tesla patents 646,676 and 640,021, which were granted prior to the Marconi patent."

In the present suit, Mr. Tesla bases his action on the allegation that his two patents were granted in 1900, and that the Marconi patent was not granted until 1904. The bill of complaint asks for a decree adjudging the Marconi patent null and void, and asserts that the Marconi patent cover the inventions and combinations of apparatus described and claimed in the Tesla patents.

The answer of the Marconi Company denies that the Marconi patent covers the inventions or combination of apparatus described by the Tesla patents, and also denies that it is guilty of any infringement. The company claims that its patent was granted to Guglielmo Marconi on the proof of independent invention by Mr. Marconi, not in any way due to or based on any invention of Mr. Tesla's. The paragraphs of the answer which Mr. Tesla seeks to have stricken out deal with details which, according to Mr. Tesla's counsel, "are not proper and are not defenses to a suit to annul a subsequent patent by a prior patentee."

Regarding the alleged infringement of his patents, Mr. Tesla said:

"My patents describe a new and original wireless system characterized by the employment of four circuits in perfect resonance, a condition essential to successful practice. Long after their grant to me Marconi filed an application and secured a patent which covers exactly the same fundamental arrangements. Such cases happen occasionally. It is quite impossible for the examiners in the Patent Office to keep abreast with workers in new and special fields. A notable instance of this kind is my single phase induction motor, on which a celebrated inventor obtained a patent which was subsequently invalidated through my earlier application.

"In a recent suit in France, involving the same or corresponding patents, the highest court, acting on a statement submitted by me, decided against Marconi and recognized fully my priority of invention in all the important features."

Mr. Nally, however, said last night that he had no reason to fear the Tesla suit.

"The Marconi Company has a right to its patent," he said, "and can establish that right in the courts. Many individuals and companies have infringed the Marconi patents, and others have attempted to disprove the originality of our inventions, but when our present litigation shall have gone through the courts, I am confident that the leadership of the Marconi Company in the invention and development of wireless communication will be established."

In his suit for annulment of the Marconi patent, Mr. Tesla is represented by George H. D. Foster and Lemuel E. Quigg of 32 Liberty Street. The Marconi Company is represented by Sheffield & Betts of 32 William Street.

The original papers in the annulment suit were filed on April 16, 1915, and the answer of the Marconi Company on May 20 following.