Fonar Corp. v. General Electric Co.
"Fonar" was a dispute between medical device manufacturer Fonar Corporation and General Electric over Fonar's patent on MRI technology. Fonar's founder, Raymond Damadian, was issued U.S. Patent 3,789,832 (priority date 1972-03-17) for an "apparatus and method for detecting cancer in tissue" using the magnetic resonance of atoms. Damadian's patent was the first patent on an MRI machine issued in the United States. Also at issue was a later patent, U.S. Patent 4,871,966 issued in 1989, covering a method for obtaining MRI images of multiple planes at different orientations in a single scan. GE is a major manufacturer of MRI scanners, and Fonar sued GE for infringing these patents by producing its scanners as well as inducing others to infringe.
William Webster (chemical engineer)
Webster was also a pioneer in x-ray research and a founder member of the Röntgen Society (since 1927 part of the British Institute of Radiology), assisting surgeon Thomas Moore in producing radiographs in 1896, after which Moore set up an x-ray unit at the Miller General Hospital in Greenwich High Road. Webster is also believed to be the first person to experience radiation 'sunburn', suffered on his right hand. He wrote a letter on the subject of x-ray photography published in the journal "Nature" in 1897.