[cornchips]

In retrospect: No. Prior art.

They abused the system for their own gain, while at the same time "retarding the development of aviation".

"The Wrights' preoccupation with the legal issue hindered their development of new aircraft designs, and by 1910 Wright aircraft were inferior to those made by other firms in Europe. Indeed, aviation development in the U.S. was suppressed to such an extent that when the country entered World War I no acceptable American-designed aircraft were available, and U.S. forces were compelled to use French machines."

"The lawsuits damaged the public image of the Wright brothers, who previously had been generally regarded as heroes." [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers_patent_war

[throwawaykf09]

The Wright patent holding back the US airplane industry is a myth, as demonstrated by industrial data from the period:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2355673

In fact, a lot of airplane innovation was happening in the US during that era despite the patent being in force. For instance the seaplane was invented in the US (by Curtiss, the Wrights' most bitter foe.)

Also their patents were challenged repeatedly and, despite being interpreted broadly, upheld repeatedly because they actually were that much of an improvement over the prior art.