Laser: The Inventor, the Nobel Laureate, and the Thirty-Year Patent War

In 1957 Gordon Gould, then an obscure physicist and perennial graduate student, conceived one of the revolutionary inventions of the twentieth century -- the laser. But before he could submit a patent application, a prominent professor of physics whose office was next door to Gould's filed his own laser patent claims. Gould fought to reclaim the rights to his work, beginning a battle that would last nearly thirty years. Many millions of dollars, as well as the integrity of scientific claims, were at stake in the litigation that ensued. "Laser" is Gould's story -- and an eye-opening look at the patent process in America, the nexus of the worlds of business and science. Gould was struggling to finish his Ph.D. thesis when he struck upon the concept for the laser, or Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Light waves, Gould realized, would form a single concentrated beam when reflected between two mirrors inside a gas-filled chamber. Even as he was sketching his invention, Gould foresaw the tremendous potential of the laser in industry, communications, and the military. For three days he feverishly documented his iNick Taylor is the author of 'Laser: The Inventor, the Nobel Laureate, and the Thirty-Year Patent War', published 2000 under ISBN 9780684835150 and ISBN 0684835150.