Land of Wizards | Popular Mechanics - July 1986

Popular Mechanics - Tom Wolfe

You know you've done it.  You've dealt with something around the house or at work or in the car and you've thought, "Wouldn't it be great if this worked a certain way?" or "I wish there was a thing that helped me do this."

When you are thinking that way, you are thinking like an inventor.  Everyone wants a shower that is personalized, delivering the exact water temperature that each showerer prefers.  We would all love a car that would drive itself to a specified destination or a traffic system where vehicles could not collide with each other, yet traveled at a maximum speed for those who need to move fast.

What about a table, with the top being an interactive computer screen, that ran a virtual Vegas application?  By selection you could play blackjack, roulette, baccarat, craps, and any of those other tables games from Pai Gow to Caribbean Stud.  The dealer is virtual.  Other players can be real or virtual.  No cards, no dice, no chips, all of it taking place on the virtual (that is horizontal) table top.  And it's waterproof so you can sit a drink on the rail.  You don't have to know the rules cause the dealer and the pit boss (virtual, too) will be there to help you out.  What a gas.  And when you aren't playing, it serves as a nice piece of furniture.  Of course, the table is wireless, too, so that upgrades and new games arrive unnoticed (depending on the settings).  The tables also work together over the network so that you "gamble" with your friends.  This is not much different from regular PC gaming software with the exception that it is furniture, larger than a normal screen, and horizontal.  I would love it, until one of my friends placed a magnet on the screen.

I'm sure you have a few ideas bouncing around in your head.  Or maybe you've had them in the past and then magically they appear on the market, as if someone read your mind.  I remember when CDs came out, I thought it was only a matter of time before we could store massive amounts of information on ever decreasing memory chips and therefore the ability to keep thousands of hours of music in your pocket.  To be sure I didn't expect the devices based on disk drive technology.  I'm a solid state guy, not trusting the durability and reliability of stuff that has mechanisms to work properly.

But, if you don't think it through, write it all down as specifically as possible and submit to the patent office, well, no one will believe it was your idea and no one will pay you royalties for your invention.

But, again, even if you did do all of that, there is no guarantee that anyone will pay you a license fee to use and adapt your invention.

Tom Wolfe, using prolific inventor Jerome Lemelson as his subject, wrote this essay to describe the sorry state of affairs that enforcement of patent law has created.  America was once a land of wizards, innovative people creating, on their own, the things that make this country tick (or turn, beep, drive, grow, etc.)

This essay is a bit dated (nearly 25 years old) but the story is a good one.  Corporate America, always at the forefront of describing how they are the job creating backbone of the US economy, comes across as anathema to innovation and invention.  Tom Wolfe does not spend too much time stating the position of the corporations; both he and his audience would have a predilection for supporting the lone wolf inventor.

Still this is a superb bit of history.  I would recommend tracking down some other views on the topic, just to keep the appearance of even-handedness.  Ideas are difficult things to claim ownership to.  One thinks of Newton and Leibniz each inventing the calculus at nearly the same time without having met or known of the other's work, though that obviously is not a modern American patent case.

Despite the lopsidedness of the essay, it isn't difficult to believe that a business concern would weigh the cost of litigation against the cost of royalties and choose the lesser of the two.  It's fundamental.

Read this and then go read more about Lemelson.  He should be as well known as Edison.