| History of the Cube |
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In March 1970, Harry D. Nichols invented a 2x2x2 "Puzzle with Pieces Rotatable in Groups" and filed a Canadian patent application for it. Nichols' cube was held together with magnets. Nichols was granted U.S. Patent 3,655,201 on April 11, 1972, two years before Rubik invented his improved cube. On April 9, 1970, Frank Fox invented and applied to patent "Spherical 3x3x3", he finally received his UK patent (1344259) on January 16, 1974, almost four years later but still before Ernõ Rubik received his. Rubik invented his "Magic Cube" in 1974 and obtained Hungarian patent HU170062 for the Magic Cube in 1975 but did not take out international patents. The first test batches of the product were produced in late 1977 and released to Budapest toy shops. Magic Cube (later "Rubik's Cube") was held together with interlocking plastic pieces that were less expensive to produce than the magnets in Nichols' design. In September 1979, a deal was signed with Ideal Toys to bring the Magic Cube to the Western World, and the puzzle made its debut at toy fairs in January and February 1980. After its international debut, the progress of the Cube towards the toy shop shelves of the West was briefly halted so that it could be manufactured to Western safety and packaging specifications. A lighter Cube was produced, and Ideal Toys decided to rename it. "The Gordian Knot" and "Inca Gold" were considered, but the company finally decided on "Rubik's Cube", and the first batch was exported from Hungary in May 1980. Taking advantage of an initial shortage of Cubes, many cheap imitations appeared. Nichols assigned his patent to his employer Moleculon Research Corp., which sued Ideal Toy Company in 1982. In 1984 Ideal lost the patent infringement suit and appealed. In 1986 the appeals court affirmed the judgment that Rubik's 2x2x2 Pocket Cube infringed Nichols' patent, but overturned the judgment on Rubik's 3x3x3 Cube. Even while Rubik's patent application was being processed, Terutoshi Ishigi, a self-taught engineer and ironworks-owner near Tokyo, filed for a Japanese patent in for a nearly identical mechanism, and was granted patent JP55?8192 (1976); Ishigi's is generally accepted as an independent reinvention. Rubik applied for another Hungarian patent on October 28, 1980 and applied for other patents. In the United States, Rubik was granted U.S. Patent 4,378,116 on March 29, 1983 for the Cube. Rubik also invented and patented several other puzzles which were not as popular as Rubik's Cube. |