# The Supreme Court invalidates key Marconi radio-patent claims, citing prior art including Tesla

Date: 1943

## The fact

On 21 June 1943 the Supreme Court decided Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. of America v. United States, 320 U.S. 1, holding central Marconi tuning claims invalid as anticipated. [Tesla](/people/nikola-tesla)’s Patent 645,576 is discussed in the opinion alongside Lodge and John Stone Stone. Tesla had died in January. The decision is not a unique assignment of ‘the invention of radio’ to him.

## Context

Popular retelling upgrades 320 U.S. 1 into a Tesla coronation. The docket is a government infringement suit against Marconi’s company. Justice delayed until after death did not pay Tesla. That incompleteness is the worsening stored here, not a claim that courts were Tesla’s enemies by conspiracy.

Nikola Tesla is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

The Library of Congress U.S. Reports copy and Justia’s text independently publish the 1943 opinion.

Official or archival record: U.S. Reports: Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. v. U.S., 320 U.S. 1 (1943) (https://www.loc.gov/resource/usrep.usrep320001/; Library of Congress).

## Significance

Patent-justice path. High confidence on the decision date and the shared prior-art holding.

A reporter’s volume is not a wizard crown. Name Lodge and Stone.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 21 June 1943 decision invalidating key Marconi claims with Tesla among cited prior art. Not established: that the Court named Tesla the unique inventor of radio, or that the ruling paid his estate a radio royalty series cited here.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Nikola Tesla: https://factrail.ai/people/nikola-tesla

## Drivers

- Judicial independence erosion (court capture): https://factrail.ai/drivers/justice-judicial-independence-erosion

## Sources

- https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/320/1/
- https://www.loc.gov/resource/usrep.usrep320001/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/us-tesla-scotus-marconi-1943