Deceased inventors may continue to receive patent grants when the approval process extends beyond the inventor’s lifetime, or when patent attorneys file “continuations” \u2014 new patent applications derived from existing filings. The likelihood of posthumous grants correlates with the resources available to an inventor’s estate: the more substantial the legal representation and financial backing, the more likely that pending applications will be prosecuted to grant. The estate of Jerome Lemelson, the inventor credited with developing the bar code reader, received 96 patents following his death in 1997 at the age of 74.<\/p>\n
Since Steve Jobs’ death in October 2011 from pancreatic cancer, the former Apple chief executive has been named as an inventor on 141 granted patents \u2014 a figure that at the relevant time exceeded the number of patents received during the lifetimes of most inventors. Jobs was closely involved in the design and development of Apple’s products, and a significant number of his invention disclosures were still in prosecution at the US Patent and Trademark Office at the time of his death.<\/p>\n
Approximately one third of Jobs’ total of 458 patented inventions and designs \u2014 covering both utility and design patents \u2014 were approved after his death. His first patent, dating from 1983, is titled “Personal Computer”. Among the more recent posthumous grants is one covering the design of the glass cube entrance to Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, filed after his death and approved in August of a subsequent year.<\/p>\n
In 2012, Jobs was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. A touring exhibition \u2014 “Patents and Trademarks of Steve Jobs: Art and Technology that Changed the World” \u2014 has shown at venues including Denver Public Library.<\/p>\n
The breadth of Jobs’ patent portfolio has attracted commentary on the question of inventorship. On many of his patents, Jobs’ name appears alongside a number of co-inventors, indicating that the inventions or designs were not solely of his creation. Critics have observed that Jobs’ name was sometimes added to patents as a result of his feedback on design details, rather than as a primary inventor. Tim Wasko, who developed the interface for Apple’s QuickTime player and the iPod, has stated that Jobs offered useful comments and suggestions, and that his inclusion on patents was accordingly warranted.<\/p>\n
Even during Jobs’ illness, Apple’s legal team continued to file patent applications in his name at a rate of several per week, including an application covering a variation of the Mac’s scrolling toolbar, filed on October 4, 2011, one day before his death. Subsequent applications have also carried Jobs’ name, including one related to the design of the 260-foot super yacht Venus, which he commissioned and helped design, and an application by Cape Cod-based Savant Systems listing Jobs as the lead inventor on a patent covering the concept of using a tablet device to navigate a sea vessel.<\/p>\n
This article is for general information and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should consult a qualified attorney before acting on any matter discussed here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The post discusses how inventors like Steve Jobs continue to receive patents even after their death through legal processes and estate actions. It analyses the implications for intellectual property rights and the ongoing legacy of such inventors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":52,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,14],"tags":[225,6980,6982,50,6978,6979,6981],"class_list":["post-17065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intellectual-property","category-patents","tag-apple","tag-inventor-estate","tag-patent-continuation","tag-patent-law","tag-posthumous-patents","tag-steve-jobs","tag-us-patent-and-trademark-office"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17065"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149726,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17065\/revisions\/149726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}