As a reader of this blog you likely know that Albert Einstein was employed, early in his career, as a patent examiner in the Swiss Patent Office. But did you also know that he later served as a testifying expert witness in at least two patent litigations? In this month's blog we take a look at this interesting footnote to history.
The first of Einstein's expert witness projects was in the case styled Anschütz and Co. v Sperry Gyroscope Co., which was filed in 1914 in the German court in Berlin. This litigation was filed at about the same time that Dr. Einstein accepted a professorship of physics at Humboldt University in the same city. With agreement from both parties, the German court hired Professor Einstein as a neutral expert. Einstein was asked for his expert opinions regarding the infringement claims made by the owner of German Patent No. 182,855: "Gyroscopic apparatus" and German Patent No. 236,200: "North-south gyrocompass" against Sperry's gyrocompass product as well as the patent invalidity counterclaims of the defendant.
For his services, which included at least one appearance in the court, an initial 13-page written report, product testing, and a 5-page followup report, Einstein was paid 1,000DM (at the time, enough to pay several months of rent on a middle-class apartment). Einstein opined that the first patent did not meet the inventive standard for patenting but also that the accused Sperry product was infringing the second patent. In reaching its decision the court accepted Einstein's opinions and awarded the plaintiff a substantial sum.
For his second appearance as an expert witness, Einstein's help was solicited in an interesting 1920 letter from George Count von Arco (available to history via Princeton's Einstein Papers Project), which reads in part:
You know that the cathode tube, with all its numerous applications, is the latest advance in wireless telegraphy. Our company owns an apparently very important patent in this area by Dr. A. Meissner, according to which the tube can be used for generating vibrations. This patent is regarded as a pioneering patent outside of Germany as well, e.g., in publications of the Marconi Company. Owing to the great electrical advantages of this system, other companies are naturally also endeavoring to skim off the cream. We are going to try to obtain clarity about the rights, by instituting a series of legal proceedings, initially within Germany, but then probably also in other countries as well. The matter is therefore of paramount importance to us. There are very few experts, however, and among these, even fewer who are completely impartial and who, at the same time, know about patent law and can assess a patent.
What my request is driving at, now, is whether you would allow us to suggest you as our expert before the courts. I would not dare to direct this request to you if I did not know that you are particularly well versed in patent law through prior occupation and, moreover, that you have already figured as a legal expert for patent matters in Germany, and this in so clear and factual a manner that it attracted the greatest admiration of all concerned. The work for you that would result from this is, I believe, not so very considerable, since the patent literature is relatively sparse.
About this second expert witness project we have not been able to find details regarding Einstein's fees, services, or opinions. However, the patent at issue appears to be German Patent No. 291,604: "Device for generating electrical vibrations". If you have additional information about Einstein's role as a technical expert witness in this second (or any additional) litigations please let me know.
