Editing Gore-Tex (section)

==History==
{{external media | width = 240px | float = right | headerimage= [[File:Bob Gore Scientists You Must Know video.png|220px]] | video1 = "I decided to give one of these rods a huge stretch, fast, a jerk... and it stretched 1000%", [http://vimeo.com/103516807 ''Scientists You Must Know: Bob Gore''], [[Science History Institute]]}}
Gore-Tex was co-invented by [[Bill Gore|Wilbert L. Gore]] and Gore's son, [[Robert W. Gore]].<ref name=RobertGore>{{cite web|title=Robert W. Gore|date=June 29, 2016|url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/robert-w-gore|publisher=[[Science History Institute]]|access-date=March 20, 2018}}</ref> In 1969, Robert (Bob) Gore stretched heated rods of [[polytetrafluoroethylene]] (PTFE) and created expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE). His discovery of the right conditions for stretching PTFE was a [https://www.topical.in.ua/membrana-gore-tex/ happy accident], born partly of frustration. Instead of slowly stretching the heated material, he applied a sudden, accelerating yank.<ref>{{Cite web |last=KooDe |date=2024-01-06 |title=Мембрана Gore-Tex |url=https://www.topical.in.ua/membrana-gore-tex/ |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=Topical in Ukraine |language=uk}}</ref> The solid PTFE unexpectedly stretched about 800%, forming a microporous structure that was about 70% air.<ref name=RobertGore /> It was introduced to the public under the trademark Gore-Tex.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gore.com/MungoBlobs/168/901/ePTFE_INNOVATIONS_PAPER.pdf |title=Innovations in ePTFE Fiber Technology |first=Norman E.|last=Clough |publisher=W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.}}</ref>

Gore promptly applied for and obtained the following patents:
* {{US patent|3953566}}, valid from 1976-04-27 to 1993-04-27 for a porous form of polytetrafluoroethylene with a micro-structure characterized by nodes interconnected by [[fibrils]]
* {{US patent|4187390}}, valid from 1980-02-05 to 1997-02-05
* {{US patent|4194041}}, valid from 1980-03-18 to 1998-06-29 for a "waterproof laminate", together with Samuel Allen

Another form of stretched PTFE tape was produced prior to Gore-Tex in 1966, by John W. Cropper of [[New Zealand]]. Cropper had developed and constructed a machine for this use. However, Cropper chose to keep the process of creating expanded PTFE as a closely held [[trade secret]] and as such, it had remained unpublished.<ref name=GoreGarlock>
{{cite court
|litigants=W. L. Gore Associates v. Garlock, Inc
|vol=721
|reporter=F.2d
|opinion=1540
|url= http://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/721/721.F2d.1540.83-614.83-613.html
|access-date=January 6, 2015
}} 
{{cite court
|vol=220
|reporter=[[United States Patents Quarterly|U.S.P.Q.]]
|opinion=303
|court=[[United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit|Fed. Cir.]]
|date= 1983
}}</ref><ref name=Schechter >
{{cite book |last1= Schechter |first1= Roger|last2= Thomas|first2= John|date= 2008|title= Schechter and Thomas' Intellectual Property: The Law of Copyrights, Patents and Trademarks (Hornbook Series)
|chapter=16.3.2.8 First Inventor Defense|publisher= West Academic|isbn=9781628105186}}
</ref>

===Gore patent held valid in 1983===
In the 1970s [[Garlock Sealing Technologies|Garlock, Inc.]] allegedly infringed Gore's patents by using Cropper's machine and was [[lawsuit|sued]] by Gore in the [[Federal District Court]] of [[Ohio]]. The District Court held Gore's product and process patents to be invalid after a "bitterly contested case" that "involved over two years of [[discovery (legal)|discovery]], five weeks of trial, the testimony of 35 witnesses (19 live, 16 by deposition), and over 300 exhibits" (quoting the Federal Circuit). On appeal, however, the Federal Circuit disagreed in the famous case of ''Gore v. Garlock'', reversing the lower court's decision on the ground, as well as others, that Cropper forfeited any superior claim to the invention by virtue of having concealed the process for making ePTFE from the public. As a public patent had not been filed, the new form of the material could not be legally recognised. Gore was thereby established as the legal inventor of ePTFE.<ref name=GoreGarlock /><ref>{{cite book|last1=Bridges|first1=Jon|title=No 8 Rewired: 202 New Zealand Inventions that Changed the World|date=Sep 2014|publisher=Penguin Group|isbn=9780143571957}}</ref>

===Gore patent held invalid in 1990===
Following the ''Gore v. Garlock'' decision, Gore sued [[C. R. Bard]] for allegedly infringing its patent by making [[ePTFE]] vascular grafts. Bard promptly settled and agreed to exit the market. Gore next sued IMPRA, Inc., a smaller maker of ePTFE vascular grafts, in the federal district court in Arizona. IMPRA had a competing patent application for the ePTFE vascular graft. In a nearly decade-long patent/antitrust battle (1984–1993), IMPRA proved that Gore-Tex was identical to prior art disclosed in a Japanese process patent by duplicating the prior art process and through statistical analysis, and also proved that Gore had withheld the best mode for using its patent, and the main claim of Gore's product patent was declared invalid in 1990.<ref name="FedCirc">{{cite web|title=''Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc. v. W.L. Gore & Assocs., Inc.'', No. 14-1114 (Fed. Cir. 2015)|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/cafc/14-1114/14-1114-2015-01-13.html|website=Justia Law|publisher=Justia|access-date=November 30, 2017|language=en}}</ref> 

In 1996, IMPRA was purchased by Bard and Bard was thereby able to reenter the market.  In 2002, IMPRA vascular graft patent {{US patent|6436135}} was issued, and Bard sued Gore for infringing it.

In 2006, Robert W. Gore was inducted into the [[U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame]] for his invention.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://invent.org/inductee-detail/?IID=240 |title=Robert W. Gore |publisher=National Inventors Hall of Fame |access-date=September 20, 2015}}</ref>

In 2015, Gore was ordered by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals to pay Bard $1 billion in damages.<ref name="FedCirc"/> The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the Federal Circuit's decision.<ref name="GoreBard_SC">{{cite web|title=''W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc., Petitioner v.Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc., et al.'', No. 15-41|url=http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/w-l-gore-associates-inc-v-bard-peripheral-vascular-inc/|website=SCOTUSblog|publisher=United States Supreme Court|access-date=November 30, 2017|language=en|date=October 5, 2015}}</ref><ref name="Gore_Bard_SC">{{cite web|title=Docket for No. 15-41, ''W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc., Petitioner v. Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc., et al.''|url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/docketfiles/15-41.htm|website=www.supremecourt.gov|publisher=United States Supreme Court|access-date=November 30, 2017|language=en|format=TEXT|date=October 5, 2015}}</ref>

Gore-Tex is used in products manufactured by many different companies.

Gore's patents on ePTFE based fabric expired in 1997 and ePTFE membrane waterproof fabrics have become available from other brands.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Lindsey |first=Joe |title=New Fabric Tech Could Be Outerwear's Biggest Advance in 40 Years |language=en-US |magazine=Wired |url=https://www.wired.com/2015/02/voormi-core-technology/ |access-date=2023-12-06 |issn=1059-1028}}</ref>