© by Mark Ollig
John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry began constructing an electronic digital computer named the Atanasoff-Berry Computer at the physics building of Iowa State College in 1937.
A working prototype was completed in 1939, and their computer was fully operational by 1942.
Soon after, a patent lawyer named Richard R. Trexler, originally from Minnesota but working in Chicago, was hired to obtain a patent for the Atanasoff-Berry Computer.
Unfortunately, the patent was never obtained due to the outbreak of World War II.
In July 1943, John Mauchly and John Presper Eckert Jr. began constructing their computer with funding provided by the US Army through Project PX.
Project PX was the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC).
J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly founded the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC) in March 1946.
By 1947, Mauchly and Eckert Jr. completed the ENIAC and filed a US patent application for an electronic digital computer.
EMCC was sold to Remington Rand, Inc. in 1950, which merged with the Sperry Corporation in 1955 to form Sperry Rand Corporation, aka Sperry Rand.
Sperry Rand made some improvements to the ENIAC and renamed it the UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer).
On Oct. 30, 1963, Clifford Edward Berry, of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, died at age 45 in Long Island, NY.
On Feb. 4, 1964, John Mauchly and John Presper Eckert Jr. were granted US Patent No. 3,120,606 for the ENIAC, which was then thought to be the first electronic digital computer.
Sperry Rand obtained the patent rights and began seeking royalty payments from competitive computer manufacturers.
The battle is about to begin.
In May 1967, Sperry Rand sued Honeywell Corporation of Minneapolis for patent infringement and demanded royalty payments.
Their lawsuit claimed that Honeywell had violated Sperry Rand’s computer patent obtained from Mauchly and Eckert.
In Minneapolis, Honeywell Corporation filed a countersuit against Sperry Rand, accusing them of monopolizing the market and committing fraud. They also argued that their ENIAC computer patent was invalid and should be nullified.
On June 1, 1971, the court case of Sperry Rand Corp. versus Honeywell, Inc. was presided over by Judge Earl R. Larson in the US Federal District Court building in Minneapolis.
Honeywell, Inc. sought to prove that John Mauchly acquired engineering designs and information for the ENIAC computer he co-created with Eckert Jr. from the Atanasoff-Berry Computer during his visit to Iowa State College in June 1941.
John V. Atanasoff would testify for Honeywell Inc. in a legal case challenging Sperry Rand’s ownership claim to the first electronic digital computer patent.
“The patent, issued Feb. 4, 1964, involves a high speed, large scale digital computer known as the ENIAC computer,” the court records stated.
At the court case, Atanasoff claimed that Sperry Rand had copied the design of his Atanasoff-Berry Computer when describing their ENIAC patent.
To support his claim, Atanasoff provided tangible evidence that he originated the idea for an electronic digital computer in 1937, explaining how he had built the computer’s electronic circuits and used binary digits and capacitors to process data.
Atanasoff testified, “During the morning, I took pains to show him [Mauchly] a copy of a document I have before me,” he said while holding a 35-page booklet with a green cover from August 1940 describing the Atanasoff Berry Computer design, electrical components, and construction, along with his hand-sketched drawings.
The booklet was nearly a step-by-step blueprint for constructing an electronic digital computer.
“He had a copy of this document while he was visiting and asked me if he could take it back with him,” Atanasoff said, testifying he had observed Mauchly reading it at length.
During their correspondence, Atanasoff testified Mauchly expressed interest in constructing a similar computer.
Mauchly acknowledged visiting John Atanasoff’s Ames, IA, home from June 13 to 18, 1941 and discussed computer theory and design with Atanasoff and Berry. He also examined the Atanasoff-Berry Computer in the Iowa State College physics building.
On Oct. 19, 1973, the Minneapolis Court determined that John Mauchly, and John Presper Eckert Jr., used designs from the Atanasoff-Berry Computer in developing the ENIAC.
The US federal court judge had ruled in favor of Honeywell.
Judge Earl R. Larson concluded, “Eckert and Mauchly did not themselves first invent the automatic electronic digital computer, but instead derived that subject matter from one Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff.”
The court also ruled that John Vincent Atanasoff should be recognized as the original inventor of the first electronic digital computer.
So, who owns the computer patent?
No one.
The court ruled Sperry Rand’s computer patent had no legal binding and was nullified. As a result, anyone can now build a computer without legal restrictions.
A team from Iowa State University/Ames Laboratory started rebuilding the Atanasoff-Berry Computer in 1994. They referred to Atanasoff’s notes and discovered some of the computer’s original components in storage, including the memory drum and vacuum tubes.
John Vincent Atanasoff died in Mount Airy, MA, on June 15, 1995, aged 91.
On Oct. 8, 1997, a functioning replica of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer was successfully demonstrated.
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| John Vincent Atanasoff receiving the "United States National Medal of Technology" from US President George H. W. Bush. (1990) |