Dave,
Remington ended up with a bit of a legal hassle over a Pedersen patent that applied to the model 17. The first several years production the guns were not marked with the "Pedersen's patent" nomenclature, while later versions were. Remington was blindsided and paid out a bit of money for this mistake. I did read that waitng for one of the Pedersen patents to expire was what held the model 37 off until 1937, as Ithaca was ready to product them sooner than that.
They are sweet little guns, that is for sure.
Best,
Ted