But his wife was dying from the hardships she had suffered, due to stark poverty.

At her funeral, Howe wore borrowed clothes, for his only suit was the one he wore in the shop.
Then, soon after his wife had died, Howe's invention came into its own.
It transpired presently that sewing machines were being made and sold and that these machines were using the principles covered by Howe's patent.

Howe found an ally in George W.Bliss, a man of means, who had faith in the machine and who bought out Fisher's interest and proceeded to prosecute infringers.

Meanwhile Howe went on making machines--he produced fourteen in New York during 1850--and never lost an opportunity to show the merits of the invention which was being advertised and brought to notice by the activities of some of the infringers, particularly by Isaac M.Singer, the best business man of them all.
Singer had joined hands with Walter Hunt and Hunt had tried to patent the machine which he had abandoned nearly twenty years before.
The suits dragged on until 1854, when the case was decisively settled in Howe's favor.

His patent was declared basic, and all the makers of sewing machines must pay him a royalty of twenty-five dollars on every machine.