GE GTD-111 / GT-100 superalloy patent dispute

GE applies for heat-treatment patent on a public-domain alloy in the early 1980s; patent office grants it nearly twenty years later, in 1997-98, after competitors have already designed the alloy into their systems. Used to introduce HIP rejuvenation as a way for buyers to legally re-condition aged parts they had previously purchased.

I'll tell you a little story about these types of structures. General Electric makes jet engines, and not only that, big land-based turbines for generating electricity. They came up with a modified alloy back in the early 1980s, that they called GT-100. GT-100 was not such a big change in composition from other alloys, and so they decided they couldn't patent it. Well, it turns out it was a pretty good alloy, and other people building turbines — like their competitors Siemens or Pratt Whitney [Pratt & Whitney] — decided well, this is a public-domain alloy and we can design it into our systems, and they did.