The Telephone Cases (which turned on the validity of Bell’s patents and, more generally, whether he was in fact the inventor of the telephone) are the precursor to much of the technology litigation of the late 20th and early 21st century. The collection includes 20 original pleading/filing from the almost 600 cases filed by and against the American Bell Telephone Company and its adversaries concerning the patents granted to Bell on the telephone.7 bound volumes contain three of the most important cases attacking Bell’s invention of the telephone: Complainant’s Moving papers on Motion for Preliminary Injunction in American Bell Telephone Co. v. Molecular Telephone Company (1885); Bell v. Drawbaugh which include Brief for Bell, the Abstract of Proofs, and the Arguments of Counsel for the Plaintiffs (1884). The Telephone Appeals, a collection of 3 leather bound volumes that encompass Abstract of Proofs, the General Brief for the American Bell Telephone Co. in the U.S. Supreme Court (1887), and the Oral Argument by Bell’s counsel in the appeal of the Drawbaugh case which was argued in 1884.In addition, there are 11 soft-bound items from the Telephone Cases from 1880-1885 of the cases of American Bell Telephone vs. People’s Telephone, Easton, Overland Telephone Company and Western Pennsylvania Telegraph. A highlight of this collection is an original stenographer’s transcript of the Argument of J.J. Storrow, attorney for Bell from 1885.The Supreme Court would, by a narrow majority of 5-4, uphold the priority of the patents belonging to Alexander Graham Bell which allowed American Bell, later AT&Tto become the world's largest telecommunications monopoly.This collection also includes a copy of The Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell in the Suit Brought by the United States to Annul the Bell Patents (1908), the most complete extant records of Bell’s version of the story of the telephone. Another is an 1885 compilation prepared by Bell’s counsel entitled “Bell Patent’s” consisting of copies of Bell’s telephone patent and “decisions of the Patent Office and the courts sustaining the patents and defining their scope”.

Minor rubbing to leather, some hinges weak. Soiling to paper hard covers. Wrappers in fair condition to those volumes. Internally clean.