15 Patents That Changed the World

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posted Apr 30 @ 05:00 PM by Patrick Tanguay · gift link

15 Patents That Changed the World

Brain implant patent illustration

Popular Mechanics has a quick look at 15 Patents That Changed the World, including the maglev train from back in 1967, the 3d printer, a “bionic eye” retinal prosthesis from 1968, GPS, CRISPR-Cas9, and graphene. Fun to read through but I’m including it here because it was found through Chris Anderson who had this comment:

One thing that allowed the modern drone industry to innovate so fast is that most of the core patents were filed by aerospace companies back in the mid-twentieth century and have since expired. The quadcopter patent, for example, was filed in 1962 https://t.co/rY0zLzqAAE
— Chris Anderson (@chr1sa) April 29, 2018

Quadroptor patent illustration

Earlier today I tweeted this Boing Boing post about the upcoming US public domain infusion, the first since 1998. In the case of both patents and copyright, it’s important to remember the innovation and creativity their release provides, not just the original work or invention it represents.