Race for a Patent

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RACE FOR A PATENT

Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce individually filed patent applications at nearly the same time. Noyce received the first patent award, probably because his application was more narrowly worded. Eventually Kilby was awarded a patent also, and a bitter legal dispute ensued. It was resolved in 1966 when Fairchild and Texas Instruments agreed to cross-license their patent rights to each other. Noyce, who originally worked at Shockley Semiconductor, later left Fairchild and founded the Intel Corporation, which became the most successful manufacturer of microprocessors in the world.

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