Lonnie Johnson, NASA engineer and inventor of the best-selling water toy, the Super Soaker, joins … [+]
A curiosity of the innovation ecosystem is that while inventors are praised for their uniquely significant contributions, they are also underrepresented. Inventors are rarely speakers at intellectual property and technology conferences. They do not hold senior positions in the US Patent and Trademark Office. A lone inventor sits on the committee tasked with reviewing the agency’s activities and making recommendations to the director. Do a Google search for inventors and you’ll find that almost all images come from the past.
The lack of widespread attention for contemporary inventors has led to interesting consequences, namely a lack by inventors. It’s hard to imagine doing something you have little awareness of and little context for. There is no education you can get that proves you are an inventor. You must be willing to give yourself that title. My experience is that most people are wary of that. Even professionals — people who use their creativity to solve problems, file patent applications, and design new products for a living — struggle to call themselves an inventor.
This is partly because the concept itself is not recognizable. When you think of an inventor, who comes to mind? If you’re like most people, you probably think of American legends like Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, or Nikola Tesla. When contemporary inventors compare themselves to these larger-than-life figures, they feel that their achievements fall short. They do not realize that they have earned the right to call themselves inventors. This is very unfortunate.
Because inventors share so many of the same qualities as leaders, we need people who love to embrace their inventiveness. Inventors view the world through a can-do lens. They are empathetic, curious, visionary and prone to action.
To be fair, organizations like the National Inventors Hall of Fame have been shedding light on the impact of inventors for decades. Some companies have, too: Intel has honored one of its employees as “Inventor of the Year” since at least 2019. The AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador Program – which honored contemporary inventors and gave them a platform to talk about their work – is a notable exception.
In general, however, modern inventors are not particularly well known.
Contents
What makes someone an inventor?
Inventors are proud when the USPTO grants them a patent. They should be: The patenting process is an investment. Typically, it is expensive and time consuming to work with a registered patent practitioner to obtain a utility patent, in which the parameters of what you own are determined by negotiating with your patent examiner. But inventions cannot be measured by patenting alone because filing of intellectual property on an invention is not required. Many inventions remain unpatented.
Making it easier for people to identify themselves as inventors (before and whether or not they get a patent) is a complex challenge. Contemporary inventors often go by other names, including engineer, scientist, entrepreneur, innovator, and designer. (While Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, and Elon Musk are called patent inventors, they are much better known as businessmen.) There’s also the fact that secrecy is part of inventing. If you publicly share your invention before filing intellectual property, you may lose your rights to obtain a patent. Because inventors are afraid that their inventions will be stolen, they are often hesitant to discuss their work with others.
There are also some less than positive connotations with the word. The image of an eccentric scientist toiling in obscurity, like Doc Brown in the Back to the future franchise, does not imply respect. businesskinda.com contributor Stephen Key for years encouraged inventors to call themselves professional product developers because of how inventors are portrayed in popular culture.
One way to make it easier for people to see themselves as inventors is to make visible and honor the inventors among us who exist in every environment imaginable. Progress is being made on this point. Last month, USA today called inventor Dasha Taylor as Woman of the Year from Iowa. Taylor is the founder and CEO of VariegateHealth, a medical device company. Cisco was recently launched a social media campaign with women to show how the company is cultivating the next generation of inventors. (It is, along with 50 other companies, a signatory to the US Intellectual Property Alliance’s Diversity Promise.)
The organization that is at the forefront of honoring and celebrating the importance of inventors is without a doubt the National Academy of Inventors, the non-profit organization founded in 2010 by neuroscientist Paul Sanberg of the University of South Florida. At the USF, Sanberg is a leader, entrepreneur, and inventor. He believes that universities should be judged by how they impact society at large and change the world, in addition to typical metrics – which should prioritize invention.
How the National Academy of Inventors Shines the Light on Inventors
Some of our greatest inventions come from the work that takes place in universities. However, in academia, success is generally associated with publishing articles, not patenting and commercializing inventions. Knowing how to identify what is patentable, file an invention disclosure, and work with a patent attorney is not part of the training academics receive. There’s also the persistent judgment that commercialization is a form of selling out that makes you less of a “real” academic.
Unless a university’s leadership emphasizes translating research into economic development — which requires collaborating with industry, starting businesses and acquiring intellectual property — invention really isn’t part of their core mission, Dr. Sanberg in a Zoom interview. Partly to change this, he founded the NAI. He believes it is critical that academic scientists (especially young ones) learn about intellectual property, understand the patenting process and are rewarded for participating in innovation to take their science to the next level. In other words, that scientists see themselves as and are celebrated for being inventors.
“It’s like anything else: you do better science when you know a lot more, including what innovation is, who the companies in your field are and what they do. For example, if you are an engineer, how is production in the community? How can you amplify that?” he explained.
His attempts to honor inventors were successful. Today, the NAI is a prestigious organization with 4,600 members and affiliated with more than 300 academic institutions around the world. Becoming an NAI fellow is the highest recognition an academic inventor can receive. At the annual meeting, new fellows are rock stars.
To provide a forum for exploring the relationship between academics and inventions, the NAI publishes the journal of Technology & Innovation four times a year. In conjunction with the Intellectual Property Owners Association, it annually publishes a list of the top 100 universities obtaining U.S. patents. All of these efforts, which treat inventors with the respect they deserve, help us understand who today’s inventors are and how important their work is on an ongoing basis. As might be expected, NAI member organizations have followed suit by recognizing inventors on their campuses. Tufts University, for example, organized an event after it recently became an NAi member honor inventors on his campus.
The next generation of inventors
Within the innovation ecosystem, a great deal of energy is devoted to raising awareness of intellectual property. But devoid of its human origins, intellectual property just isn’t that interesting. People don’t need to be made aware of intellectual property; they have to be convinced that it is really for them. The best way to make this possible is to tell stories that focus on the individual creator: the more imaginative, the better. When people understand who today’s inventors are and what motivates them, they apply these insights to their own lives.
The good news is that there are encouraging trends in the next generation. Invention education programs, which are growing across the country, are making it easier for young people to understand themselves as inventors and envision living an inventive life. Who we think of when we hear the word inventor also changes. There are teenage inventors doing remarkable work and highly visible as leaders, including businesskinda.com 30 Under 30 honoree Gitanjali Rao, Neha Shukla, and Samaira Mehta. Since TIME Rao named the first “Child of the Year” in 2020, the inventor has used her platform to deliver innovation workshops to more than 74,000 students in 44 countries.
This is a step in the right direction. It is impossible to overestimate the value of inventions. Inventors are heroes whose names we should know but don’t. In order for more people to participate in the innovation ecosystem, the stories of today’s inventors, in all their glory, nuance and failure, need to be told.
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.