This is a article about genius and talented inventors, that refused to cash in on once-in-a-lifetime opportunities of making huge financial profits by not seeking patents for the useful, valuable inventions they created. Some may call this madnesss, or glowing acts of outrightly commendable patriotism, ( as in the case of the Russian inventor of the Ak47),
or acts of selfless sacrifices (Tim Berners Lee, a good example), depending on the person's perspective.
But it is definitely a path I in all my wisdom,( or you might say covetousness), will never dare to walk, and nor would encourage another to. Nevertheless, the men listed below are all worthy of being celebrated and remembered, for the immense value they have contributed to humanity through their novel creations.
10. Harvey Ball
The emoticon is today an essential part of many forms of digital communications. From texts, emails to tweets and others.
It was designed by Harvey Ball in 1963 to improve flagging employee morale in an insurance company. His ingenious invention went further than that, and today serves many who depend on it for various communications purposes. Unfortunately Harvey made only $45 dollars from a creation that would have at least in his time made him a substantial man of wealth.
9. Douglas Engelbart
He gave us the computer mouse in 1968, an invention that became a necessary part of many PCs later. Douglas was unlucky not to get any financial benefits from his efforts as his patent expired before the mouse came into wide use.
8. Alexey Pajitnov
The game Tetris was a product of this man's extraordinary intellect. The Russian genius came forward with this idea in 1984, while working at the USSR academy of science. A decade or more elapsed before his idea earned him any monetary benefits.
7. Ron Klein
Companies bring in yearly billions in profit courtesy of Klein's magnetic tape.
The invention is today heavily depended upon by millions. That Klein never profited from it is something of a regret even though he had success with other of his tech projects.
6. Laszlo Biro
He invented the ballpoint pen but had the patent sold to Marcel Bich in 1945. Bich's company, Bic got most of the profits the invention turned over from the estimated 100 billion that has sold ever since.
5. Daisuke Inoue
He is the man that provided the world the first ever karaoke machine. His invaluable machine came into existence when the brainy inventor started producing backup tapes for businessmen to sing along to in bars. The seemingly simple machine that has created ample entertainment for millions, since its invention, never turned over any financial profits to the man responsible for its creation. The reasons for Daisuke's actions are not known but he indeed missed out on an opportunity of a life time, refused a rare opportunity to build himself a fortune and a name.
4. John Walker
The friction match is one of the timely and really valuable invention that has been offered for the benefit of humanity. There are two major ways innovative people who produce society- changing ideas get their reward. The first is the fame and recognition that most times follows trail their groundbreaking achievements, and then monetary and financial rewards. Few innovative people feel satisfied with their civilisation-altering achievements if the results are not any of the two. But the inventor of the friction match is a surprising exception. A patent was never filed for the invention, and so he denied himself of all the millions worth of financial fortune that would have easily been his.
3 Mikhail Kalashnikov
He gave the world, or rather, according to him, his country, the Ak47, one of the most innovative and invaluable war tech. creations of the time, a war instrument prized for its low production cost, reliability and ease of use. Kalashnikov proclaimed he was offering freely his invention for the benefit of his native country, Russia, not caring for any material or financial benefits that his invention could bring. Sure he was honored and received treatments worthy only for kings, his act of patriotism a glowing example up for emulation, but avoid what most men would give almost anything for,and truly spend most of their earthly lives searching for- financial freedom and reputation.
Jones Salk created a vaccine for one of the most dreaded diseases we have encountered on earth, polio, which, thankfully to Salk's vaccine, is near complete eradication. A blessing indeed for humankind, Salk's vaccination for the polio disease has proven its worth, as we may learn from available statistics from all over the world. But the inventor never earned a dime from his creation.
Perhaps unarguable is the fact that the World Wide Web is the creative idea by a single person to have impacted and altered human civilisation in varied ways that no other idea has. True or not, we have the inventor pictured above for the creation of the world wide web. Tim Berbers Lee came by his groundbreaking idea in the late 1980's, proposing a method to share hypertext documents over the internet, and we had the world wide web. Generous Tim gave his invention freely for the use of everybody, not caring to monetize his really ingenious and world- changing idea. All those who rely in any way on any of the services provided by the World Wide Web owe their thanks to the man, Tim Berbers Lee.
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