Patent Monthly - Jerome H. Lemelson
This time we remind you of an inventor who got rich on his ideas, but many people - especially large corporations - treated him as the so-called patent troll. He saw himself as a spokesman for the cause of independent inventors.
SUMMARY: Jerome Jerry” Hal Lemelson
Date and place of birth: July 18, 1923 in Staten Island, USA (died October 1, 1997)
Citizenship: American
Family status: married, two children
Luck: difficult to estimate as not all patent disputes have been resolved
Education: New York University
An experience: freelance inventor (1950-1997), founder and head of Licensing Management Corporation
Interests: technique, family life
Jerome Lemelson, nicknamed simply "Jerry" by friends and family, considered inventiveness and innovation to be the foundations of the "American dream". He was the holder of approx. Six hundred patents! As calculated, this adds up to an average of one patent per month for fifty years. And he achieved all this on his own, without the support of recognized research institutions or research and development departments of large companies.
Automated production systems and barcode readers, technologies used in ATMs and cordless telephones, camcorders and personal computers - even crying baby dolls are all or part of Lemelson's ideas. In the 60s, it licensed flexible production systems, in the 70s - magnetic tape heads for Japanese companies, and in the 80s - key personal computer components.
«Machine Vision»
He was born on July 18, 1923 in Staten Island, New York. As he emphasized, from an early age he modeled himself on Thomas Edison. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in aerospace engineering as well as an additional master's degree in industrial engineering from New York University from which he graduated in 1951.
Before he even went to college, he designed weapons and other systems for the Military Aviation Corps during World War II. After earning engineering diplomas and participating in a naval project to build rocket and pulse engines, he had a brief period of employment at an industrial plant as an engineer. However, he resigned from this job in favor of a job that he liked much more - independent inventor and "inventor" self-employed.
In 1950, he began filing patents. Most of his inventions from that period were related to toy industry. These were lucrative innovations. This industry was developing rapidly in the post-war period and was constantly in need of new products. Then it was time for "more serious" patents.
The invention of that time, of which Jerome was most proud and which in a specific way brought him great fortune, was universal robot, able to measure, weld, weld, rivet, transport and check for quality. He worked out this invention in detail and applied for a 1954-page patent on Christmas Eve in 150. He described precise visual techniques, including the so-called machine visionwhich were unknown at the time, and, as it turned out, they had to be implemented for decades. Only about modern robotic factories can we say that they fully implement Lemelson's ideas.
In childhood, with his brother and dog - Jerome on the left
His interests changed as technology developed. His patents were related to faxes, VCRs, portable tape recorders, barcode scanners. His other inventions include illuminated road signs, voice thermometer, video-phone, creditworthiness verification device, automated warehouse system and e.g. patient monitoring system.
He worked in a variety of ways. When, for example, he and his wife were conducting manual searches for archives at the US Patent Office, tired of painstaking work, he began to think about ways to mechanize the system. The result was the concept of storing documents and videos on magnetic tape. In 1955, he filed a relevant patent application. Video archiving system according to his description, it was supposed to allow for frame-by-frame reading of images on a television monitor. Lemelson also developed a ribbon handling mechanism design that later became a staple building block cassette recorders. In 1974, on the basis of his patents, Lemelson sold to Sony a license to build a miniature cassette drive. Later, these solutions were used in the iconic Walkman.
Drawings from Lemelson's patent application
Licensor
Selling a license it was the inventor's new business idea. In the late 60s, he founded a company for this purpose Licensing Management Corporationwhich was supposed to sell his inventions, but also the innovations of other independent inventors. At the same time, he pursued companies unlawfully using his patented solutions. He did so for the first time when a grain trader did not express interest in the box design he proposed, and after a few years he started using packaging according to his model. He filed a lawsuit, which was dismissed. However, he managed to win in many subsequent disputes. For example, after a legal fight with Illinois Tool Works, he won a compensation in the amount of 17 million for infringement of a patent for a sprayer tool.
He was hated by his judicial opponents. However, he was considered a true hero by many independent inventors.
His fights for the patent rights for the aforementioned "machine vision", related to the idea from the 50s, were loud. It was about scanning visual data by cameras, then saved on a computer. In combination with robots and barcodes, this technology can be used to inspect, manipulate or evaluate products as they move along the assembly line. Lemelson has sued a number of Japanese and European car and electronics manufacturers for infringement of this patent. As a result of the agreement concluded in 1990-1991, these producers obtained a license to use its solutions. It is estimated that it cost the car industry a lot over 500 million dollars.
In 1975, he joined the US Patent and Trademark Advisory Council to help improve the patent system. His litigation with corporations led to a discussion of and then changes to US law in this area. A big problem was the lengthy procedures for examining patent applications, which in practice resulted in blocking innovation. Some of the inventions reported by Lemelson while he was still alive, were officially recognized only a decade after his death.
Critics blame Lemelson for decades manipulated the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. They accuse the inventor of using loopholes that forced as many as 979 companies - including Ford, Dell, Boeing, General Electric, Mitsubishi and Motorola - to pay $1,5 billion for license fees.
"His patents have no value - they are literature," said Robert Shillman, founder, chairman and CEO of Cognex Corp., the world's largest manufacturer of machine vision solutions, years ago. However, this opinion cannot be treated as a statement of an independent expert. For many years, Cognex has sued Lemelson for patent rights for vision systems ...
The dispute over Lemelson actually concerns the very definition of a technical invention. Should only an idea be patented, without taking into account all the details and methods of production? On the contrary - is the patent law to apply to ready-made, working and tested devices? After all, it is easy to imagine a situation where someone comes up with the idea of building something or develops a general production method, but is not able to do it. However, someone else learns about the concept and implements the idea. Which of them should receive a patent?
Lemelson has never dealt with building models, prototypes or even less a company implementing his innovations. This was not what he had in mind for a career. This was not how he understood the role of an inventor. The American patent authorities did not require the physical implementation of ideas, but an appropriate description.
In search of the most important patent ...
"Jerry" used his fortune to a large extent on The Lemelson Foundation, founded in 1993 with his wife Dorothy. Their goal was to help promote inventions and innovations, inspire and educate the next generations of inventors, and provide them with the resources to turn ideas into enterprises and commercial technologies.
The Foundation has developed several programs to motivate and prepare young people to create, develop and commercialize new technologies. Their task was also to shape public awareness of the role that inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs play in supporting and strengthening the economic development of their countries, as well as in shaping everyday life. In 2002, the Lemelson Foundation launched an international program related to this.
In 1996, when Lemelson became ill with liver cancer, he reacted in his own way - he began looking for inventions and medical technologies that would treat this type of cancer. In the last year of his life, he filed nearly forty patent applications. Unfortunately, cancer is not a corporation that will go to a court settlement for quick implementation.
"Jerry" died on October 1, 1997.
