Edwin Armstrong jumped from his apartment after years of suing RCA over FM radio, and his widow, once Sarnoff's secretary, won the cases

Edwin Armstrong invented the regenerative circuit, the superheterodyne receiver and wide-band FM radio, which he presented in 1933. Westinghouse bought his feedback and superheterodyne patents for $350,000. In 1923 he married Marion MacInnes, secretary to David Sarnoff of RCA. Sarnoff later opposed FM and became Armstrong's enemy. In July 1948 Armstrong sued RCA and NBC for infringing five FM patents. The case took most of his time, and he was close to destitute as his FM patents began to expire. On 1 November 1953, after an argument over money, he struck Marion with a fireplace poker. She left and never saw him again. On 31 January 1954 he wrote her a letter blaming the litigation for neglecting his home, and jumped from their 13th-floor apartment. About a year later RCA and NBC settled his suit for about $1 million. Marion took over the other cases, advised by Dana Raymond of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Over about 13 years she won every one, including against Motorola^†, and the settlements restored her wealth. She founded the Armstrong Memorial Research Foundation and died in 1979.