The Cost of Not Protecting an Invention

Part of what makes intellectual property (IP) so important are the protections provided to inventors which mitigate theft and misappropriation of their creations. With patents, copyrights and trademarks, individuals and companies maintain legal ownership over their inventions or products.

Below is an excerpt from our white paper “Why Intellectual Property is Essential to STEM Education,” that tells the cautionary story of what happened when National Inventors Hall of Fame® (NIHF) Inductee Gordon Gould did not immediately apply for a patent for his revolutionary laser technology.

Protecting a Revolutionary Idea

On a cool November night in 1957, Gordon Gould, a physics graduate student at Columbia University, realized that by using a combination of chemicals, electrical currents and mirrors, he could manipulate light into a concentrated beam. He spent the following weekend compiling nine pages of calculations into his laboratory notebook. These pages contained the first known occurrence of the word “laser” — an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.

Though Gould notarized his laboratory notebook, demonstrating his contributions to laser technology, this was not enough to provide complete protection. For this, he needed a utility patent.

Unfortunately, Gould mistakenly believed he needed to build a working prototype before starting a patent application. This decision would prove costly; for the next 30 years, he fought to win approval of 10 patent applications related to laser technology first submitted in 1959.

Gould finally began to receive royalties in 1988 when the United States Patent and Trademark Office accepted his claim for inventing the optically pumped laser. However, legal expenses forced him to sign away 80% of his earnings to companies who financed his lengthy court battles.

“I was disappointed in myself because I had done this stupid thing of not simply sitting down and writing a patent application,” Gould said. “If I had done that, I would have had that first patent.” Gould’s story is a cautionary one. Had he taken the proper steps to patent laser technology, decades of legal battles would have been avoided. Because he lacked a working knowledge of IP, he lost out on early ownership for his laser, and a potential Nobel Prize.

While Gould should have double-checked the patent application procedures, it’s curious that the fundamentals of IP were not taught to the inventor in school.

Learn More About IP by Downloading Our White Paper

For educators looking to provide the most effective STEM instruction for their students, the inclusion of IP fundamentals is crucial. Download our free white paper, “Why Intellectual Property is Essential to STEM Education” today to learn more about how IP shapes the world around us.