Thomas Edison of the Edison patent to charge a more reasonable rate for the use of the Edison patent rights and lowering the price of the electric lamp. On October 8, 1883, the US patent office ruled that Edison's patent was based on the work of William E. Sawyer and was, therefore, invalid. Litigation continued for nearly six years, until October 6, 1889, when a judge ruled that Edison's electric light improvement claim for "a filament of carbon of high resistance" was valid. To avoid a possible court battle with Joseph Swan, whose British patent had been awarded a year before Edison's,
Technology brokering class behind the Sam Adams brand. The Light Bulb On December 31, 1879, Edison first displayed his most popular invention. It was the first "practical incandescent, electric lamp. This is a perfect example of Thomas Edison leveraging technology brokering. Edison was not the first person to invent electric light. J.W. Starr filed a patent for an incandescent bulb in 1854. That was 30 years before Edison began working on the light bulb we know today. When Edison first started testing incandescent lamps, the arc light was being used for lighting streets and also for various other applications. When Edison began