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,
Edison Bell them. Edison Bell attempted to keep the disc record out of England, preemptively declaring the device violated their patents, even before William Barry Owen arrived in London to promote the device. Edison Bell spent similar efforts engaged in patent disputes with other would-be phonograph manufacturers, including the Edisonia company run by James E. Hough, a former sewing-machine salesman from Manchester. Hough and Edison Bell eventually came to a mutual agreement and Edison Bell and Edisonia were merged under Stephen Moriarty in 1898 to become the Edison Bell Consolidated Phonograph Company, at Charing Cross Road in London. Sales up to this