Who owns the button patent?

October 20, 2009 1:08 PM

Does anyone own a patent for the button? As in, the button you press to turn on your tv, or to dial your phone, or to nuke the planet from orbit. not the button on your shirt.

I was once told that someone or some company owns the patent for the standard electric/electronic button, and that any company which uses one must pay a licensing fee to said company. is this true? if so, who? how much does one pay for this?

posted by shmegegge to law & government (8 comments total)

and by "use" I mean "manufacture as part of a device you sell." not "press when you dial your phone."
posted by shmegegge at 1:09 PM on October 20

On Google, one early reference to the push button switch goes as far back as 1853 (the history may be even older). The link is not a patent reference, but it may be a historical reference that suggests prior art.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:16 PM on October 20

Even if this was the case, the patent would have expired decades ago, as patents in the United States are limited in length to 20 years from the filing date.
posted by zsazsa at 1:18 PM on October 20 [1 favorite has favorites]

If someone did, the patent would have long since expired. This would mean, of course, that no one owns a patent on what you describe.
posted by inturnaround at 1:20 PM on October 20 [1 favorite has favorites]

Maybe some confusion arising from the notorious Amazon one-click patent?
posted by exogenous at 1:33 PM on October 20

The problem with the question is that it assumes there is only one design of pushbutton switch, when in fact there are countless styles and designs, each of which are theoretically patentable. A google patent search shows at least two dozen patents for "pushbutton switch", most of which were filed in the last 20 years or so. If you click though and look at the diagrams they are mostly of specialized design for a niche purpose.

So in other words, yes, there are patents for buttons that are currently in effect and haven't expired, but they cover specific forms. You can't just patent "a button", you have to patent a specific mechanical thing. There are many numerous ways to bring two electrical conductors into contact mechanically, and most of them are very old, so for the common devices like you mention I can't imagine there being any patent that hasn't a) expired or b) trivial to work around.
posted by Rhomboid at 2:08 PM on October 20 [1 favorite has favorites]

There are all sorts of ways to make the functioning of the button patentable. For example 4114911 is IBM's patent for the buckling spring key featured on Model Ms. It references a couple dozen other push button switches which also reference other switches. I'm sure it's switches all the way down to the early 1800s. Patent storm has 178 entries where "push button switch" appears in the title (and note IBM's patent doesn't instead being called a snap actuator) just since 1975.
posted by Mitheral at 3:43 PM on October 20

Here - from a site with the authoritative-sounding name of "inventionstatistics.com" is a list of some of the inventions which have made their individual inventors the most money. It is topped by Ron Popeil - who brought the world a number of products marketed by Ronco. I mention this because he also invented The Buttoneer - I wondered if this might have been the origin of your story.
posted by rongorongo at 4:14 PM on October 20