Down But Not Out

This article discusses profile of Jerome Lemelson who was the high-rolling inventor. He held more than 590 US patents, including claims for camcorders, fax machines, cassette players, bar code scanners, and automatic teller machines. His inventions were often so far ahead of their time that, in many cases, the technology required to build them did not yet exist. Nonetheless, by tenaciously pursuing his rights as an individual inventor, he was rewarded for his technological foresight to the tune of more. Lemelson’s most recent patent, 6,708,385, titled “Flexible manufacturing systems and methods,” was issued on March 23, 2004. The idea, first conceived in the early 1950s, was to use newly emerging imaging and data processing technologies to introduce flexibility into mass production. The patent had been decades in prosecution because of delays caused by restrictions, continuations, and interference proceedings. There were also transfers of assigned rights between Lemelson and Molins, a British company that had licensed the technology, to further delay the proceedings. This complex history may explain, at least in part, the reason for the patent's astounding 694 claims.