IBM Receives the Fundamental Patent for Disk Drives

On March 24, 1970 IBM received US Patent 3,503,060, the fundamental patent for disk drives.

"The invention of the hard disk drive was clearly led and inspired by Rey Johnson, the IBM San Jose Laboratory Director, with the day to day management of the project led by Lou Stevens beginning November 1, 1953. However, 5,600 miles away and more or less simultaneously, a prolific German inventor Gerhard Dirks was inventing the same thing.

"During World War II, Dirks as a Russian prisoner of war in occupied Germany was incarcerated for several years in a building containing a technical library. Dirks, with little else to do, spent his time reading and studying in the library during which he conceived versions of magnetic drum and core storage. When the war ended, he returned to his former employer, the Krupp Company, but failed to interest it in taking a license to his German patent application. A small German company, Siemag Fein Mechanische Werke GmbH, that manufactured bookkeeping machines did show interest and, in return for an exclusive German license, paid Dirks a modest sum, enough to enable him to file his patent application worldwide.