Facilitating and restricting a challenger: Patents and standards in the development of the Bull-Knutsen punched card system, 1919-1938

Lars Heide

Business History, 2009, vol. 51, issue 1, 28-44

Abstract: This paper discusses the various ways that patents and standards framed a challenger's opportunities. It recounts the history of the Bull punched card system, both in Norway in the 1920s and France in the 1930s, as it developed and became a challenger to IBM's monopoly. Bull faced the first mover's patents and standards differently. Standards paved the way for the challenger's actions, while patents hampered certain facilities for their duration.

Keywords: patent protection; technical standards; shaping business; punched cards; small countries; statistics production; mechanising bookkeeping (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1080/00076790802602172

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