Comments
satbirkira t1_ja5s7ib wrote
> If I ever come up with a million-dollar idea, the first person I'll tell it to is a patent lawyer.
This is good advice for a startup, but terrible advice for inventors. What you should do is to learn how to write and file a provisional patent in the USA, to get one year of patent pending status. And then try to licence out the technology to a company, who will often pay for the complete utility patent for you, or with an advance.
ghotiaroma t1_ja65n22 wrote
> so they can legally steal
It doesn't even need to be legal, courts will almost always rule for the richest party.
I used to work for a lawyer who explained judges never want their judgements appealed or criticized and that weighs heavily in their decisions. Fucking the little guy is usually a safe move for a judges career. Piss off McDonalds or Amazon and your career can be over.
RealJonathanBronco t1_ja7jk9c wrote
I think that's an old world mentality that's on its way out. Social media is increasing the reach of the average person by the day. I feel like we're approaching the era where pissing off an influencer will signal boost as much as pissing off a company.
Accurate_Arachnid_23 t1_ja3pkbe wrote
So it can be stolen?
NewCanadianMTurker t1_ja3qclg wrote
The alternative to using a patent lawyer is trying to file a patent yourself. But unless you have knowledge/expertise comparable to a patent lawyer's, some corporation would almost certainly find a loophole in your patent and steal your idea.
DnBenjamin t1_ja4077g wrote
Yeah this is why we have patents for reasonable inventions that go on to claim absurdly broad and vague things. You have to patent not only the specific actual patents invention, but also every conceivable generalization of it.
“Claims… 442. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the handle is cranked by ur mom.”
ghotiaroma t1_ja66a5i wrote
They can also, and often do, just steal it any way. You can't go to a cop and file a complaint, you have to have a legal team fight a corporation.
The loophole is that our court systems are a tool for the rich, not the little guy.
ArbitraryMeritocracy t1_ja5zcad wrote
How do you know it's a million dollar idea before getting the patent?
ghotiaroma t1_ja65zbw wrote
It's worth noting the one who has the idea is not often the one who makes the money from it.
Super Soaker guy is more of the exception than the rule.
[deleted] t1_ja4epzt wrote
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iamsce t1_ja3hw9u wrote
See, if somebody stole my invention the last thing I would do is commit suicide. That fucker would be dead long before me.
Va-Va-Vooom t1_ja4aw6i wrote
> the last thing I would do is commit suicide.
Yeah, thats how suicide works
iamsce t1_ja4csdp wrote
Are you saying I couldn't kill myself first, and then him?
ghotiaroma t1_ja64z7q wrote
I could do it, and by that I mean set something in motion that would lead to the other parties demise after my own.
ghotiaroma t1_ja64taz wrote
Chronologically correct, and that's the best kind of correct. Ignore the "technically correct" people. They stole the idea.
lavamantis t1_ja45m5t wrote
I'm always surprised I don't see a lot more people saying this. Capitalism has trained us to just roll over and accept so many injustices.
iamsce t1_ja47to5 wrote
People who just shrug and say 'it is what it is...'
It's like, thank you sir, may I have another?
ghotiaroma t1_ja6551o wrote
Well I think it's more we see the evil and think "I want to do that". We don't dislike evil, we just like to be holding the whip.
inaseaofidiots t1_ja635jg wrote
Huzzah, a man of quality
Landlubber77 t1_ja3axf3 wrote
Sarnoff leads one to a sawed-off and one to Smirnoff.
Dega704 OP t1_ja3e83z wrote
Take my disgusted upvote you clever bastard.
PyroneusUltrin t1_ja6d946 wrote
Damn I was going to say he robbed them with a Sarnoff shotgun
RetroMetroShow t1_ja3d12c wrote
Sounds like the Zuckerberg of his time
fib16 t1_ja7qd3x wrote
The brothers who came up with Facebook were paid $100 million and live a life of luxury to this day. Feels a bit different than suicide and alcoholism.
HPmoni t1_ja8ve4x wrote
Pretty sure they had an iffy case. There was MySpace.
fib16 t1_ja8wkii wrote
Well. They pretty obviously came up with Facebook but an idea and execution are two very different things. Zuckerberg made it was it is. If the brothers did it themselves we may not have fb today. It may have died. So they’re lucky a smart person “stole” it and made it into a multibillion dollar company and they got paid a shit ton for it. They were lucky imo. They claimed they lost out on billions. I say they got paid just for their idea and doing nothing else.
Dega704 OP t1_ja3adyr wrote
For more detailed accounts of both stories I recommend reading the book The Master Switch by Tim Wu.
Deadbody13 t1_ja5lcju wrote
My Communications professor told us about this while explaining phase and frequency modulation. Said he developed it and exhausted his fortune defending it and died poor. Told us we should look into it because it's a really interesting story. I never looked into it.
DiabeticPissingSyrup t1_ja3bz0a wrote
Farnsworth didn't invent the TV - John Logie Baird did.
greed-man t1_ja7j1os wrote
Baird invented one method of television. What is referred to as a mechanical version. It worked.
Farnsworth invented a different method, what is referred to as electronic. The market chose the electronic method. It worked.
Both statements are correct.
DiabeticPissingSyrup t1_ja7jej6 wrote
No they aren't.
That's like saying Dyson invented the vacuum cleaner because they invented a different type of vacuum.
Farnsworth created a better version of TV. He didn't invent TV itself.
greed-man t1_ja7ko02 wrote
I see your point, but put this in context.
Baird invented a TV process that gained very little traction. It absolutely worked, BBC was using it (although receiving sets were far and few between), but BBC gave up on it as newer methods came along. Baird's picture quality was poor (30 lines), and not portable in any way. 99% of the world had no idea that this even existed.
Farnsworth invented the process of electronic TV, along with Zworkin's CRT tube, which had much better picture, was much more portable, and reliable. It became the standard that the world adopted.
[deleted] t1_ja3f9s7 wrote
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DiabeticPissingSyrup t1_ja3gxgq wrote
John Logie Baird demonstrated TV in 1926, managed transatlantic TV in 1928, and the BBC were broadcasting TV in 1929.
Farnsworth demonstrated a fully electric TV in 1938.
Baird demonstrated colour TV in 1939.
G1fan t1_ja57ao1 wrote
Americans downvoting you like you aren't right lmao.
YourlocalTitanicguy t1_ja6w89x wrote
Sarnoff has a piece of Titanic history too.
Working the wireless on top of Wanamaker’s in New York, Sarnoff was able to pick up the faint sounds of Titanic’s distress calls. He then spent the next 72 hours trying to tune in to the messages firing across the Atlantic to Cape Race, relaying news to the world desperate to hear who had survived.
… except no he didn’t. Sarnoff totally fabricated this story in the 20s. He was managing a team of radio men who did work in the days following the Titanic sinking, but… so was every other east coast station. He didn’t hear Titanic’s distress call- it was a Sunday night, Wanamakers was closed, and its set was unlikely to be strong enough to cover that distance anyway, and he certainly didn’t stay at the keys for three days. He just… went to work like normal , even took a spa day in the middle of it.
But Sarnoff’s self created legend stuck strong, even mentioned in his obituary. There are good sources and reputable researchers who have recounted it, despite it not being in any way true at all.
WCAttorney t1_ja50rdu wrote
Every fortune starts with a crime
Bicyclebillpdx_ t1_ja6lmma wrote
Thanks for sharing. Very interesting story
gtaguy75 t1_ja43nkh wrote
nbc is cursed
GeneralChimpy t1_ja3g9v0 wrote
Just a business daddy doing business things
Sdog1981 t1_ja3me4x wrote
You can't steal FM, it exists with or without content on it. FM receivers/transmitters were invented to use FM frequencies. Those were the inventions in question.
mathisfakenews t1_ja6s97f wrote
/r/iamverysmart
McMacHack t1_ja44mjv wrote
The two inventors stole their inventions from Nicola Tesla anyway so they sort of had it coming.
ItDoesntMatter59 t1_ja5e3wx wrote
Wot?
McMacHack t1_ja5fr6n wrote
Guglielmo Marconi is credited as the inventor of the Radio but Nicola Tesla created a working prototype years earlier but never patented it as it was just one part of a larger project he was working on. Marconi actually used some of Tesla's designs directly in his radio. So Nicola Tesla invented a "radio" used as prototype in his wireless power transmission experiment in 1893 while Marconi patented and presented his radio in 1895. Even though it was Tesla's designs and concept, one could argue that Marconi delivered the radio as an actual concept by using it to transmit and receive telegraphs.
nullcharstring t1_ja6jlgy wrote
Heinrich Hertz and James Clerk Maxwell worked out the foundational theory before either of them demonstrated their inventions.
NewCanadianMTurker t1_ja3d7yg wrote
Unfortunately, stuff like this happens all the time. It's common practice for big companies to look for interesting new patents and modify them slightly so they can legally steal product ideas from others. If I ever come up with a million-dollar idea, the first person I'll tell it to is a patent lawyer.