I stumbled across this tonight at work. Looks like Whirlpool here in Canada sued both Camco (GE) and Maytag over the dual action agitator. Whirlpool made three patent submissions for the DA agi in the 70s in Canada, and Whirlpool claims that both GE and Maytag copied elements of their patents. Camco appealed this claim by saying Whirlpool doubled patented the DA agi.

If you read the court filings in the link, youll learn some neat things that Whirlpool was designing, such as a constant drive auger on the DA agi, not the intermittent clutched one we know of. You will also read about the "Golden Gobbler."

"It was the worst tangling I have ever seen in a machine.  As a matter of fact I had to stand on a chair to get the whole thing [i.e., the laundry test load] out of the machine. "

Oh, and, well its been proven in court that Maytags are great as Canadian judges believe that Maytag machines are "nothing but a satisfactory device." hahaha.