14 DAY TRIAL // Few CEOs have ever been as involved with their company’s products as Steve Jobs was. The man used to barge into meetings or into testing labs, slam or praise others’ ideas, and even chip in some of his own.
His signature is often found in the fine print of Apple’s patents applications, among other illustrious minds that helped conceive, develop, and build the iconic iDevices spawned by the Cupertino company. Three years after his death, Jobs’ legacy continues through inventions approved by the United States Patent and Trademark Office to this day.
According to the MIT Technology Review, roughly a third of the 458 inventions attributed to Jobs were granted by the USPTO after his death. That's 141 inventions post-mortem. According to some people, that’s more patents than even the most renowned inventors saw approved during their lifetime.
FOSS Patents author Florian Mueller quickly shot down those claims, appropriately pointing out that most of Jobs’ inventions related less to new technologies and more to design. Even though sometimes there’s a thin line between the two. In any case, Jobs’s plethora of patents “don’t make him one of the greatest American inventors in history,” says the German patent consultant.
Jobs won his first patent in 1983. It was titled “Personal Computer” and heralded what would become the man’s lifelong mission.
