Independent inventor
An independent inventor is an inventor who creates inventions by himself.[1] They often earn their income from selling or licensing the patents they get on their inventions.
Independent inventors are distinguished from inventors who work for corporations. Inventors that work for corporations, such as research scientists, must normally assign their ownership rights to their inventions to corporations as a condition for their employment.
Notable post-1950 independent inventors
- Robert Kearns, inventor of a type of intermittent windscreen wiper, who successfully sued Ford and Chrysler, and whose story was dramatized in the film Flash of Genius
- Jerome H. Lemelson, who claimed to have invented technology used in bar code readers, and eventually lost those patent rights as a result of pursuing a so-called submarine strategy for his patent applications[1]
- Peter Roberts, inventor of a quick-release socket wrench, who sold his patent to Sears and then successfully claimed the company owed him more because they had misrepresented their market estimates in negotiations
Organizations
- Alliance for American Innovation[1]
See also
References
External links
- Inventors Eye, the USPTO's bimonthly publication for the "independent inventor community"