# J. Graham Bell bribed the patent clerk? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 2, 2002, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-graham-bell-bribed-the-patent-clerk/101481 "2002-04-02T22:29:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nightkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/47e85d/32.png) [@nightkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightkey)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-graham-bell-bribed-the-patent-clerk/101481/1 "2002-04-02T22:29:37Z")
I read somewhere that a patent clerk testified at a trial that he had been bribed to move J. Graham Bell’s patent application for the telephone to the head of the line. Does anyone have more information? ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-graham-bell-bribed-the-patent-clerk/101481/2 "2002-04-02T22:37:26Z")
It really doesn’t matter. The patent was fought over in the courts for many years before the SCOTUS decided the patent was Bell’s. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-graham-bell-bribed-the-patent-clerk/101481/3 "2002-04-02T22:39:09Z")
I thought his first name was Alexander? Or was it the Arizona Diamondback utility infielder Jay Bell who really invented the telephone? ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-graham-bell-bribed-the-patent-clerk/101481/4 "2002-04-02T23:04:48Z")
The controversy **nightkey** is refering to is that on February 14, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell filed for a patent at the U.S. Patent Office for a telephone, and on the same day Elisha Gray filed a caveat for a similar device. Unfortunately, the department didn’t record the time of the filings, which created a tremendous controversy over who had filed first. Bell’s filing was entered fifth on the daily blotter, and Gray’s thirty-ninth, but some speculated that the blotter entries had been made at the end of the day from the full stack of submissions, which meant the blotter entries were made in reverse chronological order. Alvin F. Harlow’s 1936 book _Old Wires and New Waves_ has a detailed and impartial review of the controversy, and doesn’t make any references to a charge of bribery. In fact, there’s no evidence that either Bell or Gray knew that the other had filed that day – it was only later that the examiners noticed that two people had filed for approximately the same thing on the same day, but no one had bothered to enter the time. (It took me three years to track down a copy of _Old Wires and New Waves_ from the used book sites–I finally got my copy just last week.) ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-graham-bell-bribed-the-patent-clerk/101481/5 "2002-04-03T01:31:13Z")
Didn’t Edison also get there like an hour after Bell to file a patent on what was basically the same thing as the telephone? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-graham-bell-bribed-the-patent-clerk/101481/6 "2002-04-03T01:41:12Z")
OK, on a more serious note, isn’t the guiding rule in U.S. Patent Law whether or not you thought of an idea first, not filing it with the Patent Office first. In other words, if you have some notebook with suitable documentation proving that you invented Widget X 3 days before Person Y invented it, you are the deserving recipient of the patent regardless of whether or not your paperwork is in order. IANAL Especially IANAIPL ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-graham-bell-bribed-the-patent-clerk/101481/7 "2002-04-03T01:47:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BobT \* > \*\*OK, on a more serious note, isn’t the guiding rule in U.S. Patent Law whether or not you thought of an idea first, not filing it with the Patent Office first. > > In other words, if you have some notebook with suitable documentation proving that you invented Widget X 3 days before Person Y invented it, you are the deserving recipient of the patent regardless of whether or not your paperwork is in order. > > IANAL > > Especially IANAIPL \*\* Nope, not unless you can prove that the person who filed the patent you’re contesting knew of your idea, invention, etc. and basically ripped you off. Patent laws are notoriously Byzantine and even when you win your case you can still lose. The guy who invented the intermittant wiper had the car companies rip his idea off, so he sued them. It went all the way to the US Supreme Court who found in his favor (Yea! Score one for the little guy!), but the damage award they gave him was less than his total legal expenses. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-graham-bell-bribed-the-patent-clerk/101481/8 "2002-04-03T02:00:34Z")
Thank you. As I said IANAIPL