In 1956, AT&T was banned from selling anything other than telecom. I assume that’s why Shockley left to found his semiconductor company that year. I’m unclear on whether it could license patents, but its existing patents were all seized and put in the public domain. AT&T still had a lot of internal needs for computers, so it kept funding research.
In 1956, AT&T was banned from selling anything other than telecom. I assume that’s why Shockley left to found his semiconductor company that year. I’m unclear on whether it could license patents, but its existing patents were all seized and put in the public domain. AT&T still had a lot of internal needs for computers, so it kept funding research.