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1879 Patent Settlement

When: 1879
Where: United States
Part of: Bell Telephone and Western Union agree to stay out of each other's business

Western Union settled a patent lawsuit with Bell in 1879, agreeing to leave the telephone business completely.

Western Union had attempted to launch a rival telephony system in the 1870s but faced competition from Bell. The company settled a patent lawsuit with Bell in 1879, agreeing to leave the telephone business completely.

Sources

Western Union Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-09

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.