I came across this interesting story. It turns out a British man in the late 70’s came up with the idea for the iPod and has the drawings and the patent applications to prove it. He could not afford to pursue the idea and it sort of fell out of his ways. Apple has acknowledged that he had some hand in the invention, but only has paid him a small consultancy fee. This guy wants a shit ton of money, but it looks like he is SOL. Should Apple pay this guy or just laugh all the way to the bank as they sell 100 iPods every minute?
“But in 1988, after a boardroom split, he was unable to raise the £60,000 needed to renew patents across 120 countries and the technology became public property” Nope. He shouldn’t get a penny.
He’s powerless either way imo. So Apple is just going to laugh all the way to the bank. Why didn’t he just contact a company and contract it instead of patenting it?
at least he got a consultant fee. he doesn’t deserve a cent.
He didn’t renew his patents, he screwed himself over.