text: In 1854, Talbot applied for an extension of the 14-year patent. At that time, one of his lawsuits, against photographer Martin Laroche, was heard in court. The Talbot v. Laroche case proved to be pivotal. Laroche's side argued that the patent was invalid, as a similar process had been invented earlier by Joseph Reade, and that using the collodion process did not infringe the calotype patent in any case, because of significant differences between the two processes. In the verdict, the jury upheld the calotype patent but agreed that Laroche was not infringing upon it by using the collodion process. Disappointed by the outcome, Talbot chose not to extend his patent.
  1844 calotype of Thomas Moore and the Talbot household
  Talbot was a friend and neighbour in Wiltshire of the famed Irish poet and writer Thomas Moore. Dated April 1844, Talbot made a calotype of Moore as a visitor standing with members of his own household.
  The distinctive curls identify Talbot's half sister Henrietta Horatia Fielding standing to his left.  Eliza Frayland, the nursemaid at the far left, had come into the family's employ with the birth of Charles Henry Talbot in 1842.  Arranged in the front are Matilda Caroline (later Gilchrist-Clark, age 5); Ela Theresa (age 9);  Rosamond Constance Talbot (age 7).  The woman at the right is possibly Moore's wife Bessy.