Re: TFT patent?
They were not a large USA Corporation. Or Maybe German, Finnish or Asian.
Ironic that RCA was gone by 1976. The dregs bought by French Thomson. Now name may be owned by Nokia.
UK from 1850s to 1970s was brilliant at innovation. More rarely at comercialising. By 1960s most of the original UK Electronics had either been morphed to MOD contracts or run by bean counters with no vision. Acorn's ARM was really the only one that escaped the curse and only by giving up making, but licensing.
Thorn went downhill after Jules Thorn retired (and died not long after, he had a long reign).
Mullard was Philips by 1928. EMI (HMV etc) lost their way in 1970s. Ferranti, Plessey, GEC, Inmos, ICL, Ever Ready, Burndept, Vidor, Rank Radio (Bush / Murphy). Sinclair was a serial disaster, certainly a show man. Alan Sugar /Amstrad. The other UK companies in Telecoms & Computers.
Most Edison & RCA patents were bought in, intimidation, ignoring prior art, simply invalid etc. To and extent Bell Labs/AT&T (The UNIX land grab of work done by the Universities) Though all did innovate too.
The USPTO especially needs reformed.