Electronic Digital Computer Patent Dispute

Electrical engineering alum helps solve patent dispute

A 1946 Iowa State University electrical engineering alumnus, Marvin Moody, became a patent attorney. During his career, Moody investigated the Mauchly-Eckert patent and the ENIAC for a client who made digital computers. He recalls the following:

“I went to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia where Mauchly and Eckert were professors and located the relevant files. The files were stored under the seats of the football stadium where there was an unheated triangular space. It was February and about 32 degrees. I spent a few days going through boxes of the ENIAC wearing my overcoat and gloves. In these files, there was a travel expense to Ames dated well before the ENIAC work was started, which verified that Mauchly and/or Eckert had actually seen the ABC in Ames and talked to Dr. Atanasoff and Berry.”

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