Why did Fairchild Semiconductor receive the patent for the planar process?

Fairchild Semiconductor received the patent for the planar process because its engineer, Jean Hoerni, developed the revolutionary manufacturing technique in which semiconductor layers and sensitive interfaces are embedded beneath a protective silicon dioxide outer layer.1

Hoerni realized that depositing this silicon-oxide film on silicon wafers would significantly reduce the contamination that had previously hindered production. Fairchild filed a patent application for this process in 1959. While the company later engaged in legal battles over integrated circuit patents with Texas Instruments, the two firms eventually cross-licensed their technologies. This planar process became the foundation for Robert Noyce and Gordon E. Moore to extend the technique to the large-scale manufacture of integrated circuits.21