Here’s an older blog entry that I like to reread when life doesn’t seem fair:
Robbery #1.
The intermittent windshield wiper was patented in December 1964. The man who created this invention presented it to the “Big Three” auto companies, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. He tried to get the auto companies to license the use of his invention, and although they rejected his proposal, they began installing intermittent wipers in their cars in 1969, without paying him a dime.
He spent the better part of his life fighting the American “Big Three” and foreign automakers for patent infringement. By 1995, he received $30 million from Chrysler, but had spent $10 million on his own defense.
Ford Motor Company claimed that the patent was invalid because the intermittent wiper system had no new components, but the inventor noted that his invention was a novel and non-obvious combination of parts.
He spent decades of his life fighting for the recognition that he was the inventor of…
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SueAnn Porter 