The key word here is "Employee".
Who remembers the name of the female lab tech who discovered polyaramids(Kevlar) for example?
From my experiences in Corporations, it's a miracle Woods is remembered at all, because everyone knows "only VP's have ideas".
In a similar way, Edison's hundreds of patents would never have happened were it not for the star-struck "Little" employees, who did the inventing on the other things than the light bulb and the phonograph.
And the word “Employee” is somewhat misleading as well. Foreshadowing much of today’s corporate buyouts and mergers, initially, Woods had his own company, of which Edison bought him out rather than compete with him. This left Woods as an “employee” but likely in charge of his own division/staff.