Posted on 05/27/2015 9:03:39 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Thomas Edison is usually thought of as the greatest inventor ever, bringing the automatic telegraph, the phonograph, and alkaline battery into the world.
His Menlo Park, New Jersey, lab was so productive that he promised "a minor invention every ten days and a big thing every six months or so."
All together, he had 2,332 patents to his name.
But according to Stephen Fry at the Telegraph, Apple chief design officer Jony Ive has been way more prolific than Edison.
You — and your friends and family — live their lives surrounded by things his inventive hands have touched. The iPhone, the iPad, the new MacBook.
"Ive's inventiveness can perhaps most starkly be expressed by revealing that he has nearly 5,000 patents to his name," Fry writes.
That's double the number of patents as Edison, who was 84 years old when he passed away.
Ive is only 48. Barring a tragedy or change of career course, he has decades left of inventing left in him.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Regards,
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
I challenge the members of the Apple ping list to each donate at least $10 each to the latest Freepathon. I HAVE donated $100. Many members of the Apple Ping list are already rising to the challenge. Join them. Let's show the power of the Apple Ping list in supporting Freerepublic!
They grant you a patent automatically if you have more than 1000 lawyers.
Think about how stunningly ludicrous that is. Just for a second.
I’d rather have Edison’s record. He invented things we still use and talk about.
Getting a patent on a technical method of rearranging computer chips is not exactly akin to developing something NEW.
And most of what Apple does is just assemble parts that other manufacturers make.
...while standing on the shoulders of Edison...
and? Edison’s inventions were far more game-changing than stuff Apple comes up with.
technology builds on technology. Edison was around at the beginning of technology.
Exactly. Lots of patents for frivolous stuff.
I ended up with four patents. Two of which were involved with work to come up with a way to avoid infringing on someone else's patent. The other two two were truly original. Another would still be original, but it does require $$ to get the lawyers rolling.
My thoughts exactly
Really? He had 2,332 patents. Name just 1% of them, without looking them up. Just 23 patented inventions of Edison that we still use and talk about.
Hell, I'm an Edison fan and yet I'd have trouble coming up with more than 20 off the top of my head.
I'd wager that a good percentage of the other 99% might not be "still in use and talked about".
That said, I'm fairly sure Jony's 5000 or whatever were not all major inventions, or even his own; they might just bear his name. Hell, that's a patent every day and a half for 30 years, if he started getting them at age 18 and he's now 48.
Nobody does that.
That's not to say the guy's not real good at what he does. He obviously is.
I agree with you. Tesla was more inventive than Edison, and more honest. Edison was a thief, profiting on others' ideas. Not that he wasn't smart, just that others invented stuff and Edison took it and improved on it. And he was a jerk, trying to ruin Tesla. Good thing Tesla won the AC-DC war, although he lost his money.
Exactly! The patenting of code is nonsense. It should be copy write.
All the new patents are nothing more than magnets for patent trolls.
I’m also a Nikola Tesla fan. In Edison’s favor his most unheralded invention is one he never patented that Apple and almost every corporation uses today: the cooperative team workshop approach to invention, the skunkworks.
Prior to that, invention was pretty much a solitary man effort, but Edison invented the “Invention Factory” whose sole purpose was innovation for innovation’s sake. He’d put an engineer on an idea and let them run with it. If it panned out, they’d patent it and then license it out for manufacture. If it didn’t, they still might patent the idea, but not license it to keep it tied up in litigation. Edison was one of the most litigious people around.
did edison have a building full of attorneys to fill patents for him all day?
Think of how many cuts and scratches that saved.
Well yes, I’m also a Tesla fan, and yeah, Tesla’s work on AC particularly multiphase, was brilliant and thank God it prevailed. Edison championed DC as much because he didn’t understand AC, as any other reason.
But Edison was the subject of the article... Besides Ives, of course. :-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.