From time to time critics of the old Bell System gripe that the
> company was "guaranted profits" by the regulators and as such, owed
> something back to the community.
> Aside from the fact that regulation actually limited profits, AT&T was
> indeed required to give things back. One of which was the rights to
> its invention of the transistor, which were available free of charge.
> (Per Ziff-Davis history).
> I had always wondered why AT&T never seemed to make any money from the
> invention of the transistor.
> I presume other Bell Labs patents were also available free; indeed, I
> never knew of AT&T making money from licensing its many inventions.
> It appears patents were more for freedom of use than profit. IBM
> adopted a similar policy in the 1950s. Both did so from anti-trust > settlements.
Hmmm ... among other things they pretty much gave away:
LASER/MASER
Fiber Optics
And a host of other inventions, many of which I'm using at the moment as I reply to this.