What does Knight's ultimate victory in the patent litigation highlight about being a woman inventor?

Her claim could be contested and potentially lost due to administrative timelines exploited by male challengers.

The protracted and expensive legal fight Knight endured, even though she ultimately prevailed, demonstrated the profound vulnerability inherent in being a female inventor during that era. The necessity of the litigation showed that even when one successfully creates a revolutionary design, the claim was not secure simply by conception; it could be actively contested, jeopardized, and potentially lost if a male competitor exploited flaws in the administrative timelines of the patent office, as Luther Crowell attempted. Her success in navigating this confrontation underscores that persistence against systemic flaws, rather than just technical originality, was required for survival.