Deceased inventors can also get Patents granted, if the approval process gets drawn out, or when attorneys seek \u201ccontinuations\u201d – new versions of old patents. And the more lawyers and money an inventor has, the more likely his ghost will rattle on. The estate of Jerome Lemelson, the sometimes-controversial\u00a0independent inventor who came up with the bar code reader, received 96 patents following his death in 1997 at the age of 74!<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s how, since Steve Jobs’ death in 2011 from pancreatic cancer, the former Apple CEO has received\u00a0141 patents, the highest number as of now! That\u2019s more than most inventors get\u00a0during their lifetimes.<\/p>\n
Jobs was closely involved in the details of many Apple products, and some of his inventions are still working their way through the US Patent and Trademark Office. A\u00a0large number of them reflect Apple\u2019s intense efforts to patent every aspect of its products, no matter how small, something Jobs himself encouraged.<\/p>\n
A third of a total of 458 patented inventions and designs credited to Jobs have been approved since he died.\u00a0Jobs\u2019 patent documents are a record of Apple\u2019s history from startup to one of the world\u2019s largest companies. His first patent in 1983, is simply titled ‘Personal Computer’. One of the newest, filed after his death and approved in August, covers the\u00a0design of the dramatic glass cube\u00a0that\u2019s the entrance to Apple\u2019s store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
In 2012, Jobs was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He even has his own traveling museum show, \u201cPatents and Trademarks of Steve Jobs: Art and Technology that Changed the World,\u201d most recently appearing at Denver\u2019s Public Library.<\/p>\n
One criticism is that on his patents, Jobs\u2019 name often appears alongside a score of others, meaning these inventions or designs were not entirely of Jobs\u2019 making. Instead, Jobs shared credit for what Apple\u2019s more than 80,000 employees did, something some\u00a0argue to be \u201cfed into his legend as a one-in-a-lifetime visionary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tim Wasko, who developed the interface for Apple\u2019s QuickTime player and the iPod, remembers that Jobs would give feedback on small details, and he\u2019d often end up with a position on a patent. Wasko added, \u201che had useful comments, suggestions, and it\u2019s worthy of him being on the patent\u201d.<\/p>\n
Even as Jobs became ill, Apple\u2019s lawyers kept filing patents in his name every few days, including one for\u00a0a variation of the Mac\u2019s scrolling toolbar, which was filed on October 4, 2011, the day before he passed away.\u00a0And Jobs\u2019 name is still getting added to new patents, some of which offer a window on his personal interests, like the 260-foot super yacht, Venus, that he commissioned and helped design. Only this March, a company based on Cape Cod, Savant Systems, listed Jobs as the lead inventor on a patent application covering the idea of using a tablet like the iPad to steer a sea vessel.<\/p>\n
I get a good feeling knowing that my work would live on forever, don’t you?<\/p>\n
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