WEBVTT - Patents and Inventors Not Getting Their Due 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.440 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.360 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:22.840 And how the tech are you? I am recovering still little, 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:26.880 you know, raspy, But here we go the show. They 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:30.960 say it must keep on happening. I think I think 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:34.839 that's the saying. And today I thought I would talk Uh, 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:37.800 this is kind of a weird mishmash of a show, 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:39.720 but I thought I would talk about a few inventors 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:44.959 who created stuff. Some of that stuff would become insanely popular, 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:48.880 and yet these inventors were never really able to fully 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:53.600 capitalize on their innovation for one reason or another. Uh. 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:55.400 But the reason why I wanted to do that is 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:59.520 because there's this narrative, particularly here in the United States, 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:03.480 that if you've got ingenuity and elbow grease, you can 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:05.960 work your way to the top. You can smash through 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:11.280 economic and social barriers that you know otherwise constrain us. 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:14.760 So here in the US, all that gets wrapped up 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:20.120 in what we call the American dream. Unfortunately, sometimes you 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:24.200 can do everything right and still lose out. And so 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:27.479 we're gonna talk about some of those cases. We're also 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:31.600 going to talk a lot about patents, and I've talked 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.800 about patents before, but let's go over it again kind 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:38.760 of as a reminder. To receive a patent is to 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:44.360 get some authorities assurance that that authority recognizes you as 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:51.000 the inventor of something. Typically we're talking about a government office, 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.160 some office that has been authorized by the government to 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:57.840 do this, like the U. S. Patent Office. So to 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:01.760 secure a patent, and inventor has to submit a patent 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:06.440 application and also pay fees in order to have it considered. 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:10.200 The application has to explain at least in some detail 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:15.000 what the invention does and how it works, and that 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:18.480 description needs to be at least somewhat specific. If you 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:23.160 get really vague in general with your patent application, you're 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:25.880 less likely to be granted a patent by the office, 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:31.200 because if you're not really describing how your invention works, 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.840 then that creates this this huge bubble you can use 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:41.760 to attack anyone who makes anything remotely similar to your invention. Right, Like, 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:43.680 the whole idea of a patent is that it protects 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:49.440 your idea, your invention. But if you are so vague 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.040 with the way you word how your invention works, anyone 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:55.680 who makes anything even remotely similar you could argue as 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:59.400 infringing on your patent, when really the problem is you 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:04.840 never explained how your invention works properly. Patent applications and 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.440 patents themselves are a matter of public record, and that 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:11.359 means anyone can pull up your patent and see how 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.360 your invention works. You can do this right now. You 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:18.920 go to the internet, go to a web page, uh, 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:22.160 Patent office web page, and start searching patents. You can 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:26.840 read all you want. They get pretty technical and filled 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:31.680 with like jargon and legal ease, largely too kind of 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:35.680 obfu skate what's happening uh, And that does make it 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:38.960 a little tricky to read. Uh. You also get a 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.000 lot of this kind of flowery language that has been 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:45.960 adopted as being standard in patents. But you can do it. 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:48.920 You can check it out and you can see exactly, 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:55.040 or at least generally, how various inventions work. But the 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:59.360 patent also grants protection for the invention. So if you 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.839 discover that some ne'er do well out there has been 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:07.040 copying your invention, you can take that person or you know, 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:10.640 entity to court and you could say, you know, they 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:14.560 sue them for patent infringement. If you can prove that 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.960 they were using your patented approach without first getting your 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:21.359 permission to do it, then you can frequently get some 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:25.240 decent damages out of them and shut their illegal operations down. 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.160 Often these end up going to settlement before it goes 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.800 all the way through the court system. Court cases are expensive, 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:36.359 and if a company is already kind of feeling like 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:38.640 they're not gonna win out on a on a case, 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.600 they might choose to settle rather than draw things out, 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:46.440 pay the high price of legal fees on top of 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:49.719 whatever damages they end up getting thrown their way as well. 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:55.560 Now we're going to get back to this idea about 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:01.640 you know, permissions and patents and licensing and all that 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:05.560 kind of stuff, because I am oversimplifying here. Now, patents 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.000 have a shelf life, and here in the United States, 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:12.320 a utility patent has twenty years. Uh. There is an 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:15.480 asterisk here. However, in order to have the full protection 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:19.279 of a patent, then the applicant has to pay occasional 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.640 fees in order for the patent to be enforceable. So 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:26.080 it's really a maximum of twenty years. But that maximum 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:30.560 is determined by whether or not the applicant has actually 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:35.159 continued to pay uh those those regular fees. So after 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.960 twenty years, a patent expires, and anyone can make use 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:43.599 of that patented technology. However, they like folks can copy 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:46.840 your invention and it's totally legal. They can make their 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:50.479 own version of whatever invention you created. However, you know, 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:55.279 the thought is, after twenty years, whatever the technology is 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:57.719 is going to be so out of date, then at 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:01.560 that point you will have moved on to other stuff. Meanwhile, 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:05.640 some folks might get inspired by your old patented invention 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:09.000 and they might use that as a springboard to create 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.840 something entirely new. So, in other words, patents have an 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:16.640 expiration date, both because governments want to strike a balance 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:22.680 between protecting inventions and inventors as well as encouraging innovation. 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:25.640 That's always like the other side of the coin, right, 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:30.599 the idea of protecting ideas can often come at the 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.559 cost of innovation. If someone else sees an idea someone 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.000 had and thinks that's great, I know how to make 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.400 it better, but they're prevented from making it better because 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.960 there's a patent in the way. That could be a problem. Now, 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:46.920 There's also an alternative to patenting your invention, and that's 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:49.719 you know, just trying to keep it secret, keep it safe. 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:53.600 But that runs a pretty big risk. If someone figures 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:57.520 out how you did whatever it was your invention does, 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:00.640 and then they copy you and you don't have a patent, 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:02.839 well it's gonna be a lot harder for you to 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:07.200 stop them from doing that and seeking out damages. If 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:11.440 you're super careful and secretive and your invention is not 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:14.360 easy to reverse engineer, well you might be able to 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:18.000 dominate the market. But if someone does reverse engineer your work, 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.040 you know that is, if they see what your invention 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:24.200 does and then they work backward to figure out how 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:27.880 the invention doesn't, well, you could be opening yourself up 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:32.920 to unexpected competition. Now I should add that lots of 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:38.000 folks will reverse engineer patented inventions even with the patent 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:43.239 being publicly available. So a patent is supposed to explain 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:46.560 how an invention works, and it's supposed to be specific 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:49.840 enough so that it can be an enforceable patent, But 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:52.280 that's still not quite the same thing as like having 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:55.480 an instruction manual on how to build the darn thing, 0:07:56.240 --> 0:08:00.400 or a manual explaining how it actually works in practice. 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.640 So sometimes you'll have competitors who will take a product 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:08.600 that someone else made and they will reverse engineer that 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.720 patented device, And they might do that not just to 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:14.679 figure out how the competition is doing what they do, 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:18.480 but also to figure out maybe there's an alternative way 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:22.240 to get the same end result that doesn't depend upon 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:26.000 the patented technology. Let's use an example, because this is 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:30.280 getting kind of esoteric, I guess. So let's say that 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:34.160 you have invented a machine and that machine makes cookies, 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:39.240 and you've created an innovative cookie dough extractor thing about Bob, 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:43.360 and you patented it, and your arch nemesis in the 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:46.800 cookie world has purchased one of your cookie machines and 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:49.640 then taken it apart, and then they build their own 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.640 cookie machine, and they make sure that they use an 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:58.120 alternative approach that accomplishes the same goal. It still makes cookies, 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.240 but it does it in a way that's fundamentally different 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:05.200 from the way your machine makes cookies. And the two 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:08.199 cookies that are produced minded up being really really similar, 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:11.600 but the processes are different. That means that if you 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:15.200 were to take that other you know, arch nemesis to court. 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:18.679 The court would say, well, I would probably say anyway, 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:20.560 you can never guarantee these things. But the court would 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:24.760 probably say, well, yeah, they're using a cookie making machine, 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:30.640 but clearly they're using a different process than your cooking 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:34.600 making machine does. Therefore, their cooking making machine does not 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:40.760 infringe upon your patent. So the alternatives are you either 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:44.560 have to purchase stuff from who whoever holds the patent, 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:47.800 and that's assuming that the patent holder is actually making 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.800 the invention they patented in the first place, or you 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:54.800 have to license the patented designed from from the patent holder. 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.679 There are companies out there that hold hundreds or thousands 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:03.320 of patents, and these companies make money not by manufacturing something. 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:08.400 They're not actually making the inventions that the patents cover. Instead, 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:13.480 they license those patents to other companies that do make stuff. 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:18.080 So these companies are just making money by licensing out 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:22.080 the patented inventions to other companies that make the thing, 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:26.320 and that's how they make a profit, and that's perfectly legal. 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.959 But then there are also patent trolls. All right, I'm 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.200 gonna talk about patentrols more in just a second, but 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:43.400 first let's take a quick break. Okay, before the break, 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:46.040 I mentioned patent trolls, and I've done episodes about these 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:48.320 as well. But it's important for us to remember what 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.360 a patent troll is. That is, a person or an 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:56.080 entity that holds one or more patents and doesn't make 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:59.720 any use of it other than as kind of a weapon. 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:04.080 So patent trolls look out for anyone who's making any 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:08.880 kind of product or service that could infringe upon a 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:14.360 patent that the patent trolls hold. Then they threatened legal 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:18.720 action against that that person or company. So the trolls 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:23.280 goal ultimately is to coax out a big, juicy settlement 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:27.480 payment from that targeted entity. The troll has no intent 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.959 on making use of the patent, nor is it necessarily 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:35.199 even licensing out the patent. It's just lying in wait. 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.160 It's like a trap that's been set. It's just waiting 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.760 to spring into action as soon as it detects that 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:45.160 someone in fact is making a technology that could conceivably 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:48.720 be said to infringe upon a patent that the troll holds. 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:51.800 They're generally regarded by the rest of the text sphere 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:57.000 as odious entities. Anyway, patents will pop up a couple 0:11:56.960 --> 0:11:59.200 of times in this episode, so I thought it was 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:02.560 a good idea to that quick cliffs notes version of 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:04.320 what they are and why they exist. We're gonna be 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:08.360 coming back and talking about specific things about patents as well. 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:11.480 But before we get into all that, let's start off 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:14.360 with an actual inventor who came up with an idea. 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:18.400 She filed a patent for this idea, she received a 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:22.319 patent for it, and yet failed to be recognized for 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:26.599 her work and did not make money off of her idea. 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:28.640 And it was an idea that, for a short while, 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:33.839 was nothing short of a global sensation. All right, So 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.440 they aren't really a thing anymore, at least not anything 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:39.560 that anyone talks about. It's kind of a thing that, 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:41.760 you know, you might joke about if you were, for 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:45.360 some reason joking about the year two thousand seventeen. But 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.720 do you remember fidget spinners? Do you remember when fidget 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:55.760 spinners became huge, like unavoidably huge. Everyone was selling different 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:58.360 kinds of fidget spinners. You had some that would light up, 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.360 You had some that were had you know, logos on them. 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:04.600 How Stuff Works had a few How stuff Works branded 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.440 fidget spinners. I actually have a few at my house. Uh. 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:11.120 The toys in case you're not familiar with fidget spinners, 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:13.280 and it just means that you weren't awake during two 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:15.400 thousand and seventeen, if that's the case. But the toys 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:19.120 have a ball bearing in the center of them, and 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:23.040 around the ball bearing is kind of a lobed structure, 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:27.760 and typically you had like three lobes surrounding the ball bearing, 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:31.760 and the lobes can spin freely along the axis of 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:34.720 the ball bearing with just a little tap and you 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:37.040 could spin them. You could flick them and and it 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:41.040 would spin around it's it's ball bearing center. And like 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:44.680 I said, they became popular and then ultimately became unavoidable 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:49.640 in two thousand seventeen. Then not long after that they 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:52.760 kind of fizzled out like it was a flash in 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.760 the pan kind of fad. Uh. No telling if they're 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:57.960 ever going to make a comeback. You know, we've seen 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:02.880 other toys have this kind of reaction where they get 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.480 huge and they go away and then years later they 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:10.320 come back again. The yo yo, fittingly enough, a toy 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:13.040 that goes down on the string and that ultimately comes 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:15.120 back up again if you're doing it right. The yo 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:18.319 yo does that, it gets really popular, and then it 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:22.640 essentially disappears, and then years later it gets really popular again. 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:27.720 Well anyway, the genius behind the fidget spinner was Catherine Hettinger, 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:30.440 and I think for a lot of people, Hettinger is 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:32.840 not the type of person who springs to mind when 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:36.760 you use the word inventor, but that's exactly what she is. 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:41.120 She is an inventor. She invented the fidget spinner concept 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:43.840 back in the nineteen nineties while she was taking care 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:47.480 of her daughter. Hettinger had a medical condition that limited 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:51.080 her ability to really be active and to actively play 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:55.360 with her kid, so she turned her innovation toward finding 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:59.240 a toy that could help out, and she designed the 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:04.200 fidget spinner and patented her invention back in nine seven, 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:09.200 twenty years before the fidget spinner would become a phenomenon. 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:13.840 She entered into talks with Hasbro, the toy company, but 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:17.840 ultimately those talks didn't go anywhere, and in two thousand five, 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:21.120 she was faced with a four hundred dollar renewal fee 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:24.720 for her patent and she was strapped for cash. She was, 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.640 you know, just trying to make ends meet, so she 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:31.520 chose to let the patent expire because the one deal 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.920 she had with a toy company had fallen through, so 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:38.040 she didn't have the money to just keep this patent 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:40.800 going for no real reason. And then more than a 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.360 decade after that, the fidget spinner would pop up and 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:47.960 become a craze. Hettinger didn't benefit from that at all, 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:50.680 although I should say in interviews it seems like she's 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:55.280 really pleased that people found her invention interesting and entertaining, 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:58.400 like she has a really good attitude about it. Now, 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.920 many articles point out that even if Hettinger had kept 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.600 the patent on fidget spinners, and even if the craze 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.560 had happened before the patent expired, because remember she she 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:11.360 filed for the patent in nineties seven. Um, I think 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:13.280 she was awarded it a couple of years later, so 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:16.680 she was getting real close to that patent expiring just 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:20.320 even on its own. Um. You know, the patent expires 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:22.120 from the date it was issued, not the date it 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:25.440 was applied for, so she still had a little bit 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.840 of wiggle room. But even with that, she might have 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.360 still been out of luck and when it came to 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:36.080 profiting off her idea. And that's because most fidget spinners 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:41.560 were coming out of Chinese manufacturing companies, a small to 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:46.640 medium sized companies that aren't particularly concerned about following rules 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:49.680 when it comes to patents. The fidget spinner is such 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:54.000 a relatively simple design and it's so inexpensive to manufacture 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:57.360 that it represented a very low bar to meet in 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:00.560 order to get in on the craze. Like if you 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:02.920 saw that these were starting to get popular, then it 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:06.480 didn't It didn't require much for you to start making 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:10.359 them yourself if you had the manufacturing capabilities. And because 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:13.120 the company is making these things are in China, it's 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:15.480 pretty much impossible for the U. S. Patent Office to 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:19.400 enforce any patents that are being violated there, Like it's 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:22.520 just there the lad the jurisdiction does not extend all 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.880 the way out to China. And I don't know about you, 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:29.600 but I find Hettinger's story pretty frustrating because I think 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:33.480 folks should get compensated for their work and for their ideas. Again, 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:38.120 Hettinger herself seems to be, you know, really fine with everything, 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:42.320 but I'm I'm of the opinion that someone should at least, 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.520 you know, send a truckload to cash her way for 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:50.040 the fact that her invention became one of the uh 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:53.960 iconic things to come out of two thousand and seventeen. 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:59.400 Speaking of the threat of Chinese companies, let's talk about 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:02.000 another and ventor who was affected by that. I'm talking 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:05.879 about Shame Chen, who created another piece of tech that 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:09.120 had a heck of a rise to popularity followed by 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:13.679 some crash and burns literally though that wasn't necessarily Chen's fault. 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:17.200 So Chen was born in China, but he immigrated to 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:20.000 the United States back in the nineteen eighties, and he 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:22.520 founded a couple of different companies, and he was creating 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:27.200 interesting technology in different fields, including tech for the agricultural industry. 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:30.199 So he has had a hand in inventing lots of 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:33.800 different stuff. However, the invention that he created that the 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:38.800 mainstream would really become aware of was the hoverboard. Now 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.480 not talking about the fictional technology used in Back to 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:43.800 the Future too, and to some extent and Back to 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:48.200 the Future three, that kind of hoverboard doesn't exist. Despite 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:51.959 the fact that Robert Zemeckis shot some cheeky behind the 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:56.600 scenes footage that supposed least that that hoverboards do exist, 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:00.880 they don't. Now I'm talking about the two wheeled platforms 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:02.600 that you stand on and use kind of like a 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:06.159 segue in order to roll around. He also patented the 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:09.840 solo wheel, which is an electric unicycle that's self balanced. 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:11.960 Back when I was walking to the office, I often 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:14.800 saw this one dude cruising down the belt Line, which 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:18.480 is a big pedestrian and bicycle lane that goes through 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.080 a lot of Atlanta, and he was on his solo 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:23.800 wheel and he looked kind of like a hipster robot. 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:26.600 That's not a judgment, it's just kind of a description 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.040 of what he looked like. For the record, I actually 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:33.560 invied his wheeled transportation, but I had a very strong 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:37.080 feeling that I probably would wipe out if I were 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:39.720 to try it myself. It doesn't matter how self balancing 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:43.160 that unicycle is. I will find a way. But anyway, 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:48.040 Chen filed a patent for his hoverboard invention, which was 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:52.080 actually called the hover tracks t R A x UH. 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:54.359 This was back in two thousand twelve when he filed 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:58.120 for the patent. He received a patent in two thousand fourteen. 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:01.280 Patent office takes a while to process these things because 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:05.560 the office gets flooded with patent applications and has to 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:09.760 go through them and make you know, careful judgment about 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:13.080 whether or not a patent is warranted. Uh. So it 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:16.119 does take time for that to happen. So Chen's version 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:22.480 of the technology was really expensive. His product was not cheap. Uh. 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:25.400 It costs around a thousand dollars to get an official 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:29.760 hover tracks device. Meanwhile, you have these Chinese companies that 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.920 were starting to churn out inexpensive clones of the hover tracks, 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:38.600 and consumers started to flock to these cheaper alternatives. It 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:43.000 was clear that people found the hover tracks technology really intriguing, 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:45.400 but the price tag was too steep for a lot 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:49.479 of people, so they turned to the cheaper versions. But cheaper, 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:55.720 ironically comes at a cost. The designs weren't necessarily as 0:20:55.880 --> 0:21:00.720 sophisticated or effective as Chen's was, and certainly the companies 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:04.480 were skimping on the batteries, and there were numerous reports 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:08.000 of folks discovering that their hoverboard devices were catching on 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:13.600 fire like explusively. The problem was serious and bad enough 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:16.000 to prompt airlines to make announcements that they would not 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:20.800 allow any hoverboard devices on flights. I'll talk a bit 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:24.399 more about what was behind the exploding hoverboards after we 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:37.080 come back from this quick break. Okay, so why hoverboards explode? 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:41.000 Maybe while the issue was with the batteries in these machines. 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:45.920 Lithium ion batteries can be extremely dangerous if they are 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:50.120 poorly made or if they are damaged. If the various 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:53.359 layers inside the battery are made to come into direct 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:56.880 contact with one another, then it forms a direct path 0:21:57.200 --> 0:22:01.400 called a short circuit. Now, normally, the electrons that these 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:04.680 batteries generate would have to flow out of the negative 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:08.600 terminal of the battery into a circuit. They would then 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:12.800 do work along the way of the circuit, and ultimately 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:16.119 they would re enter the battery through the positive terminal. 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:20.600 But if you were to compress or pierce the battery 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:24.879 and cause layers to come into contact to each other, uh, 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:27.919 then it creates a shortcut for the electrons. It creates 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:31.560 a short circuit. Electrons would flow freely from negative to 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:35.160 positive as fast a rate as it could possibly do, 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:38.800 as as was physically possible, and the battery would start 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:40.760 to heat up and heat up and heat up, and 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:43.959 eventually would get hot enough to combust, which could in 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:47.080 fact be explosive because the materials inside the battery and 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:51.280 the fact that they're under incredible pressure. Um, We've seen 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:54.560 these issues with other technologies too, like smartphones, right, We've 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:58.560 seen where a poorly made batch of batteries have led 0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:04.640 to massive fire and recalls and and agencies and UH 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:08.560 and organizations like airlines having to respond to it because 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:14.760 they represented really massive danger. So Chen's business, remember Chen 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:17.560 was the guy who created the hover tracks that kind 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:21.000 of spawned all this. His business was undercut by these 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:24.680 Chinese companies, and the technology itself got a bad name, 0:23:25.040 --> 0:23:28.480 mostly due to these cheaper devices that were catching on fire. 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:32.159 And it's a real shame because Chen's versions would likely 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:36.240 have come down and cost over time, as early adopters 0:23:36.240 --> 0:23:40.800 would help fund improvements in manufacturing and sourcing, and then 0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:44.439 folks would actually have access to a more affordable hoverboard 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:47.600 that you know, would be less likely to explode because 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:52.840 it wasn't being rushed out of uh A manufacturing center 0:23:52.880 --> 0:23:58.679 in China. Now. Sometimes inventors choose not to patent something, 0:23:59.000 --> 0:24:02.080 either because they are elnisie guarding their trade secrets and 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:05.040 they don't want to let those out because again patents 0:24:05.040 --> 0:24:08.679 are public, or because they actually want people to go 0:24:08.760 --> 0:24:11.440 out and make the invention In other words, they don't 0:24:11.480 --> 0:24:14.600 want to patent it because they don't believe that the 0:24:14.640 --> 0:24:19.199 invention belongs to them, or sometimes they don't try to 0:24:19.240 --> 0:24:21.760 file a patent because they figured their chances of getting 0:24:21.800 --> 0:24:25.400 a patent are slim for whatever reason. For example, let's 0:24:25.400 --> 0:24:28.080 talk about Jonas Salk, the doctor who came up with 0:24:28.119 --> 0:24:32.320 a polio vaccine. Often he is lauded as someone who 0:24:32.400 --> 0:24:36.920 generously gave the the invention of a vaccine for polio 0:24:37.400 --> 0:24:39.760 to the world in an effort to make the world 0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:43.440 a better place. Polio was a global problem, and salks 0:24:43.520 --> 0:24:47.800 vaccine made it possible to all but eradicate the disease. Now, 0:24:47.840 --> 0:24:51.919 typically we think Salk's decision not to patent his vaccine 0:24:52.560 --> 0:24:57.000 was done as an altruistic choice that he wanted uh 0:24:57.119 --> 0:24:59.919 to help the world and he didn't feel it was 0:25:00.160 --> 0:25:04.720 morally right to patent something and then make people pay 0:25:04.840 --> 0:25:08.600 for the privilege of not dying a polio Now, in fact, 0:25:09.440 --> 0:25:14.240 the Salk Institute actually considered filing a patent for the vaccine. 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:17.960 It's just that the institute figured that the patent would 0:25:17.960 --> 0:25:20.960 be denied on the basis of prior art. So I 0:25:21.000 --> 0:25:24.760 should probably explain what that is really quickly. Prior art 0:25:25.240 --> 0:25:30.280