Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Polymath: Lowell Wood Is America's New Top Inventor (bloomberg.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the can-you-invent-a-new-patent-system dept.

pacopico writes: It's taken more than 80 years, but someone has finally overtaken Thomas Edison as America's top inventor. The dude is named Lowell Wood; he was once behind the infamous 'Star Wars' space laser project, and he was a protege of Edward Teller. On July 7th, he received his 1,085th patent, breaking Edison's record. The article says he has 3,000 more inventions awaiting review at the patent office. Wood seems to be using his powers more for good these days and has become the right hand inventor for Bill Gates and his philanthropic endeavors. He's making efficient nuclear reactors, universal vaccines and anti-concussion football helmets. Quite the life.

"Wood attributes his ability to hop from subject to subject, making associations that sometimes lead to inventions, to reading—a lot. He subscribes to three dozen academic journals. 'I have a terrible deficiency of willpower once I open an electronic table of contents for Physical Review Letters or the New England Journal of Medicine,' he says. 'It's just terribly difficult to pull myself away from them. There will be these three articles that I absolutely have to read before I can turn loose of this thing. If I don't read them, I'm doomed. I'll never come back to them because there will be the next day's journals and the ones after that.'"

25 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Reduce to practice much? by Pinky's+Brain · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "speculative schemers who make it their
    business to watch the advancing wave of improvement, and gather its foam in the
    form of patented monopolies, which enable them to lay a heavy tax upon the
    industry of the country, without contributing anything to the real advancement of
    the arts. It embarrasses the honest pursuit of business with fears and apprehen-
    sions of concealed liens and unknown liabilities to lawsuits and vexatious ac-
    counting for profits made in good faith."

    1. Re:Reduce to practice much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      He's just the idea man. He can't be expected to waste his time on all the details. That's somebody else's job, provided they can fork over the licensing fees for the luxury of expending obscene amounts of money and time making it actually work.

    2. Re:Reduce to practice much? by willworkforbeer · · Score: 2

      He's just the idea man. He can't be expected to waste his time on all the details. That's somebody else's job

      I had not really considered how many new jobs have been created by his creativity and new ideas, or how many future jobs may yet be created long into the future.
      That's an interesting aspect of invention, the 'jobs legacy.'

      --
      Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
    3. Re:Reduce to practice much? by Type44Q · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "Accordingly, it is a fact, as far as I am informed, that England was, until we copied her, the only country on earth which ever, by a general law, gave a legal right to the exclusive use of an idea. In some other countries it is sometimes done, in a great case, and by a special and personal act, but, generally speaking, other nations have thought that these monopolies produce more embarrassment than advantage to society; and it may be observed that the nations which refuse monopolies of invention, are as fruitful as England in new and useful devices."

      - Thomas Jefferson

  2. What??? by Ancil · · Score: 5, Funny

    he was once behind the infamous 'Star Wars' space laser project

    You bastard. I had friends on Alderan.

    1. Re:What??? by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, I guess it's a good thing he blew up Alderaan instead.

      That's what you get for looking for friends in Alderaan places

  3. The most important requirement for a patent today? by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Finding someone to fund the patenting process. The rest is quite trivial.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Number of patents... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...is a really BAD way to identify "top inventor". This doesn't mean the guy isn't brilliant, but - to use the old example - I'd rate Tesla as discoverer ("inventor" is such a misleading term) over Edison any day. Tesla was much more about quality and scholarship than rapacious exploitation of his own and others' talent for his own ego. Or, to quote T on E:

    If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.

    Overall wealth increase (as opposed to mere transfer of wealth) is about application of the mind to improve efficiency.

    1. Re:Number of patents... by king+neckbeard · · Score: 4, Insightful

      1) Edison worship was shoved down our throats for years, so yeah, that's going to happen out of reflex.
      2) Edison did a LOT of really fucked up, horrific things, including the things he did to Tesla.
      3) /. doesn't care about being an "all-around inventor" in the sense of Edison. It's like a Jobs and Woz comparison, and /. is going to pretty much universally side with Woz because Woz and Tesla were people more like us, and we don't see much value in the ability to be a shrewd businessman. Tesla was a real life mad scientist, and we love that shit.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
  5. Patents mean nothing by aaaaaaargh! · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But if he has one good publication - just one real classic that everybody reads - then he deserves uttermost respect.

  6. He's building nuclear reactors? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3, Insightful

    >> He's making efficient nuclear reactors

    He is? Where can go see one?

    1. Re:He's building nuclear reactors? by Tablizer · · Score: 2

      [...efficient nuclear reactors] Where can I go see one?

      Here.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  7. Works for Intellectual Ventures by PineHall · · Score: 5, Informative

    He works for Intellectual Ventures, so he is an idea man. Maybe he is like Edison but Edison's ideas were built into products, deserving a patent. At Intellectual Ventures the ideas, which maybe good, are patented without building the product. There is a difference IMHO.

    1. Re:Works for Intellectual Ventures by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I had my suspicions when Gates was mentioned, and now they are confirmed: he works for Intellectual Vultures. Great. I'm not doubting he's a clever guy, but damn, that puts paid to the notion of him "using his powers for good". If you want to do good, turn your ideas into products, or help others to do so. Or you can remain evil, work for IV, and continue to extort intellectual property taxes from the general public.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    2. Re:Works for Intellectual Ventures by careysub · · Score: 5, Informative

      Intellectual Ventures is very well known as the worst of the patent trolls. It is not an "invention company" it is an intellectual property litigation company.

      Lowell Wood is notorious for his brazenly fraudulent claims about SDI technology (especially the X-ray laser chimera) during the 1980s.

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
  8. How can anyone take him seriously? by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 2

    I see no social-media links for him in the article. No Twitter, no Facebook, not even a Slashdot ID. How can he possibly be anyone of importance?

    "That's how he preserves his mental capacity"? I don't understand. Is that a meme?

  9. What's in a patent? by larryjoe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1085 patents granted and 3000 more submitted. That's 4085 patents. Assuming that he's worked on patents for 50 years, that's an average of over 80 patents per year. That's a lot of patents. The implication of the such a large number of patents is that all the patents are equally valuable. However, I'm not sure it's humanly possible to perform the work for 80 valuable patents per year.

    This reminds me of Jan Hendrik Schön, who made waves with 60 publications over 2 years, including 15 in leading journals such as Science and Nature. It was eventually determined that he made up important data for his papers, leading to retraction of many of his papers and even his PhD degree.

    I'm not suggesting that there's any fraud in the case of Mr. Wood. Rather, there are many very common and even accepted ways to accumulate a huge number of patents. It's not unthinkable that many/most of the patents are
    (1) work mostly performed by others for which he provided guidance, review, or management,
    (2) black-box patents that describe what should be done instead of providing sufficient detail to allow someone else skilled in the art to actually utilize the idea, or
    (3) incremental ideas based on existing patents or prior art.

    It may very well be that Mr. Wood is a genius that has contributed significantly to science and technology and has made a difference in the world. However, the number of patents is not a believable metric of that contribution. To convince me that he is a genius requires only a description of his impactful ideas, as encapsulated in a few (or even one or zero) patents. The large number of patents simply invites skepticism.

    1. Re:What's in a patent? by Gr8Apes · · Score: 2

      Perhaps equating Wood with Edison is quite appropriate. After all, Edison employed 100s of workers that did the leg work for the bulk of the patents he claimed. After all "Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration. Accordingly, a 'genius' is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework." and Edison outsourced his perspiration. TL;DR, but Wood appears to be in a similar position.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    2. Re:What's in a patent? by careysub · · Score: 2

      The different is the Edison had hundreds of workers actually doing research. That is, actually inventing things. Intellectual Ventures has hundreds of lawyers writing patent applications.

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
    3. Re:What's in a patent? by careysub · · Score: 2

      The paperwork is not Wood's responsibility. Intellectual Ventures has an army of lawyers to do that. Wood's job is to throw out plausible sounding variations of the existing patent literature, to be turned into new patents, so that IV can sue other people. Patent trolls like IV are a serious obstacle to real innovation.

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
  10. "Making"? Yeah right. by Whatsisname · · Score: 4, Insightful

    He's making efficient nuclear reactors, universal vaccines and anti-concussion football helmets.

    He isn't making shit. More like playing a legally enforced game of "dibs".

  11. If number of patents is supposed to be a measure.. by mschaffer · · Score: 2

    If the number of patents is supposed to be a measure of top inventiveness, Lowell Wood has nothing on the likes of Kia Silverbrook (4,665 US utility patents) or Shunpei Yamazaki (4063 US utility patents).

  12. Re:Except the patent process is a joke by Amouth · · Score: 2

    how to use a swing is my personal favorite

    http://www.google.com/patents/...

    followed by exercising a cat with a laser pointer

    http://www.google.com/patents/...

    --
    '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
  13. Patent term by CanEHdian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wow. I guess a 20 year patent term, after which the invention joins the public domain and becomes part of our heritage, doesn't discourage inventors from inventing. Why wouldn't the same apply to creators if copyright is limited to 20 years?

    --
    When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
  14. what kind of crap journalism is this?! by Thud457 · · Score: 2

    Claiming he's beat Edision's record but no tally of the number of stray dogs, cats and elephants he's electrocuted?

    Before Edison's innovations, we had to hang any rogue elephants we wanted to dispose of!

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff