Only in the last 10 years, several billion-dollar companies, such as Uber and Facebook, have been involved in an intellectual property scandal, constantly having to demonstrate the power of original ideas, and whether any inventor really has them or not in the first place.
Along with a bit of Internet help (and a lot of research), we began to see that the most famous inventors of all time, some credited with the invention of important products like the light bulb and the radio, simply stole their ideas from other people.
Below you will find 10 ideas valued in billions of dollars that were definitely not original. Check out!
The Monopoly
Like other famous inventions or discoveries over the years, the famous board game and the great American pastime, Monopoly was actually invented by a woman. In fact, it was created by a bold and progressive woman by the name of Elizabeth Magie, in 1903.
Back then, it was called “The Game of Owners” and was used to demonstrate the tragic consequences of land accumulation. Although his story is well known, many still claim that Charles Darrow is the legitimate inventor, even though he simply stamped his name on something that did not belong to him.
The sewing machine
When you think of a sewing machine, the first company that probably comes to mind is the Singer Corporation, mainly because, to this day, they are still a powerful entity in the manufacturing industry. machines. However, according to Cambridge History, despite this firm control over the sewing machine industry, Isaac Singer and Singer Corporation stole the idea from Elias Howe, who eventually sued the company for the right to receive royalties. Won.
Television
Although your textbooks may make you believe that the first television set was created by Vladimir Zworykin for the RCA electronics company, it was actually invented by Philo Taylor Farnsworth, an inventor with 165 patents to his name.
It turned out that Farnsworth invented television in 1927, at the age of 21, and three years later, Zworykin visited his laboratory to see his invention and ended up stealing his ideas. After a decade-long court battle, RCA eventually lost the initial court case and appeal, which means Farnsworth would have to receive royalties for the inventions, although he has not yet received the recognition he deserves.
The phone
In the late 1800s, a race to create the first successful phone was underway, and the two main contenders in this race were Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell. If you’ve never heard of Gray, it’s probably because you were taught at school that Bell was the genius who invented the device that could transmit intelligible sounds from one place to another.
As it happens, on February 14, 1876, both men filed their patents, although it was actually discovered that Bell bribed the patent office to discover what Gray’s invention really looked like. Because of this deception, it is often claimed that Elisha Gray is the main inventor of the telephone, although he never obtained the credit he deserves.
The laser
Gordon Gould created what he called the laser, or Amplification of Light by Stimulated Radiation Emission. Although he had just invented something important that he wanted to exhibit, he thought that he would need to perfect his laser design before applying for a patent.
However, unfortunately for Gould, this misstep allowed two of his colleagues to steal his idea and patent it two years later, in 1959. Finally, after three decades of judicial battles, Gould was able to legitimately put his name on this invention and claim several million dollars in royalties.
The radio
In the last decade of the 19th century, Nikola Tesla discovered that he could use his electronically charged tesla coils to transmit messages over long distances, and he had an accepted patent for this in 1900. During this time, a young inventor with the name Marconi also tried inventing something similar using many of Tesla’s patents, and when he finally succeeded in creating a radio broadcast, he was given credit for creating the radio, and Tesla was, rightly, furious with this false development. Unfortunately, he never had the money to prosecute Marconi, although the invention was credited to him after his death in 1943.
Jack Daniel’s
This Tennessee whiskey distillery claimed that while the slaves helped create the recipe, they had not really worked out the exact process that made Jack Daniel so delicious, but the honor belonged to the founder, Jack Daniel.
However, in 2016, the company that owns the Jack Daniel’s distillery, Brown-Foreman, made headlines when they finally decided to give the recognition they owed for the last 150 years to the slave who actually created the whiskey, Nearest Green.
Facebook
When Mark Zuckerburg, 19, launched Facebook as a sophomore at Harvard in 2004, he allegedly did so without the consent of three of his classmates who helped him think of the idea, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narenda. In 2007, the three students received a payment from Facebook to help alleviate tensions between former classmates.
The bulb
The history of the light bulb shows the process, often complicated, of the invention, and how, in most cases, the credit is not granted to those who deserve it. While Thomas Edison was a brilliant inventor, he did not invent the light bulb.
Conversely, along with other inventors you’ve probably never heard of, Heinrich Goebel probably invented it, after trying to sell the device to Edison in 1854. Edison did not see anything useful at the time, but shortly after Goebel’s death, he bought the patent for his widow at an extremely low price and claimed to have invented the product.