But the patent ran out in 1987, before the technology became widely used. He first came up with the idea for the mouse in 1968, and did patent it. The inventor of the computer mouse Douglas Engelbart died in July this year. But despite patenting it he had to battle for years to get cash from the National Research Development Corporation who helped put the hovercraft into production. As he developed his idea, he was even forced to sell some of his possessions to fund the work. Sir Christopher Cockerell received a knighthood for his various inventions, which included the hovercraft - an idea he first tested using a vacuum cleaner and two tin cans. Again, he never patented his design, so didn't benefit from the millions of screeching performances it became responsible for. Japanese businessman Daisuke Inoue is the man who gave us the karaoke machine. He said he created it for the good of his country. But while the weapon's official manufacturer did patent the design in the 1990s, Kalashnikov never did. Mikhail Kalashnikov invented the AK-47 in 1947, and more than 100 million of the assault rifles are thought to have been manufactured since. But having taken out a patent for his invention, Biro sold it to Marcel Bich in 1945, whose company Bic pocketed the majority of the cash from the 100 billion that have been sold since. In 1938, Laszlo Biro patented the ballpoint pen, after becoming fed up with leaky fountain pens. He decided that his invention should be freely available. But Berners-Lee put no patent on his idea, so was due no royalties. The first website was built at CERN in 1991, and from there the internet was developed. Perhaps the most famous inventor not to earn cash from an invention that fundamentally changed how we see the world is Sir Tim Berners-Lee - inventor of the World Wide Web. There are many others who, having come up with life-changing gadgets and gizmos for the rest of us, were never rewarded for their hard work. He didn't patent his invention, so failed to profit.īut he is not alone. The inventor of the doner kebab died this weekend, having gifted the world one of its most popular drunken take-away options.īut despite being recognised for his ingenuity with slices of meat and a flat bread (he was officially recognised by the Association of Turkish Doner Manufacturers in 2011) Kadir Nurman made next to nothing from his creation.
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