The general principle of using swirl to alter the characteristics of flow, was known and used in general industrial application way back into the 1920`s (nothing to do with engines), its very likely that people had the idea of what to do going back FAR further than this, as its application is extremely obvious to anyone technically trained looking at the famous Euler Turbomachinery equation (Euler died in 1783).
As far as I can see Sydlowski & Planiol were the first people to apply this to an aero engine supercharger for the purposes of an improved boost control method, but in radial blade form. In terms of AXIAL form, I have yet to see anything earlier than the DVL swirl throttle (in testing in Sept 1940, so design would have been underway at least a year before on paper), which must have been developed at approximately the same time as the Mikulin Axial swirl throttle, although not having the Russian papers its impossible to say when they actually started the design on paper. This also goes for Polikovsky stuff.
Other than the Russians, the only people to apply it in WW2 combat were Jumo with the 213.
The axial form is considerably better as the entry into the supercharger is direct and so the peak efficiency will be higher. The radial inflow (Sydlowski) design
is however very useful indeed for making a compact installation.
I dont think any patent/ licensing aspects are very relevant to usage as its obvious from the Euler Equation from 1783, and technically speaking (although these days this rule is bent very heavily) a patent cannot be granted unless the solution is Quote: "non-obvious". These days there is so much money to be made from granting patents (let alone the licensing) that they let you patent nearly anything.