YOU ARE INVITED to a Madery Bridge – Taskforce Leadership Discussion
Business Power Leadership Issue Discussion
Thursday, September 25 at 11 am Eastern
Control vs. Innovation:
A Story of American Greed or a Bungled Business Strategy?
Featuring
Dr. Lawrence Goldstone, author of Birdmen: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies
Dr. Goldstone covers a dramatic business strategy to control an industry and its technology through IP – only to lose to a man whose contrasting strategy is innovation.
Dr. Goldstone Will Introduce:
• How the Wright Brothers attempted to monopolize aviation: The Wrights were operating in a period when monopoly rights were attractive to many lawmakers and regularly ratified in the courts. Yet, despite an enormous lead in technology, overwhelming resources, as sophisticated a board of directors as existed in any American corporation, and favorable and definitive rulings in federal court, their attempt to control the industry by using patent law failed.
• How the Wright Brothers ultimately lost the battle to control the skies: To attain their monopoly, the Wrights did not announce their triumph at Kitty Hawk in December, 1903. Rather they waited until their patent was granted, a patent specifically structured to cover not only the means of control they had used—“wing warping”—but virtually every other variation that might someday be conceived. Their goal was nothing short of receiving licensing fees on every machine that would ever fly. But in doing so, they did not seek to improve on wing warping, which quickly became obsolete. Thus, from virtually the moment they began to actively market their invention, they had sunk to technological mediocrity.
No charge to attend this conference call with visual support.
To register: Call Bob Shearer directly at 972/490-9100 or email at bshearer@caei.org
