Wireless communications
Martin Cooper: inventions and patents
Known for First handheld cellular telephoneNationality Born in Chicago, Illinois, United StatesBorn 26 December 1928
Martin Cooper, born in Chicago in 1928, joined Motorola in 1954. On 3 April 1973 he made the first public call on a handheld cellular phone, the DynaTAC prototype, on a New York City street corner, according to the Marconi Society. He is one of eight named inventors on US Patent 3,906,166 for a radio telephone system, filed by Motorola in 1973 and granted in 1975.1,3,2
Patents
US 3,906,1662Radio telephone system
- Filed
- 17 October 1973
- Granted
- 16 September 1975
- Assignee
- Motorola, Inc.
- Co-inventors
- Richard W. Dronsuth, Albert J. Leitich (printed as Albert J. Mikulski in the text version on Google Patents), Charles N. Lynk Jr., James J. Mikulski, John F. Mitchell, Roy A. Richardson, John H. Sangster
View the patent document
Inventions
- DynaTAC handheld cellular phone prototype, 1973. A handset weighing 2.5 pounds and 10 inches long. The name DynaTAC stands for Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage.1
Recognition
- 2010 Prince of Asturias Prize for Science and Technology (as named by the Marconi Society)1
- 2013 Marconi Prize1
- 2013 Charles Stark Draper Prize, National Academy of Engineering3
- IEEE Centennial Medal1
- Member, National Academy of Engineering1
Sources
- The Marconi Society, Martin Cooper, 2013 (accessed 2026-10-27)
- Google Patents, US3906166A Radio telephone system (accessed 2026-10-27)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, Martin Cooper (accessed 2026-10-27)