LASER BRAIN

Patent battles tend to drag on. Just ask Gordon Gould, who invented the laser, coined its name—then spent three decades fighting for credit. He had just emerged victorious when he sat down with Forbes in 1987.

“Though Gould is understandably angry and bitter about his long years in court, the truth is he is infinitely better off financially exactly because of the extended legal battle he fought. If he’d gotten the patents as he should have, in the early 1960s, they would all have run out by now, and the infant industry he spawned would have earned him relatively little. As it is, Gordon Gould is now worth at least $25 million [$60 million in 2022 dollars], with a lot more to come.” —Forbes, December 14, 1987

No wonder Gould, cruising around the shores of Virginia in his new white Mercedes, was learning to let go: “Funny thing is, I’m not real angry at them anymore.”