One of our users in Ohio, our dealer in Texas, and our Chicago office were sued by 3M for infringing their Jewitt and Case patent. We then set up Polychrome offices to sell direct to the printer in many cities. 3M won the Texas and later the Chicago case. The judge had 3M write the findings but when they put in silicate and others, he throw out the others. We had put the Polychrome lab on finding a substitute for silicate. We tried a number of organic compounds without success. We had hired a chemist (Cohen) and Ibert Mellan, who had written several books about solvents. He and I found that potassium zirconium fluoride could be used instead of silicate. And started to make plates using this. We patented this not only in the US and Japan but other countries.
3 M sued our Chicago office for patent infringement. They claimed that the interlayer was actually silicate. The Chicago judge approved Professor Linford as the master. We made and 3M made plates using very small amounts of sodium silicate and using potassium zirconium fluoride. The zirconium treated plates performed better. Professor Linford never informed us of his findings. Before He could the United States found 3M guilty of being a monopoly. Later we appointed Professor Linford as the Polychrome director of research.