Great Inventions Never Patented

Jonas Salk, asked who owned the polio vaccine patent, reportedly asked whether one could patent the sun. Tim Berners-Lee gave the World Wide Web away at CERN in 1993.

Wilhelm Roentgen refused to patent X-rays. Kohler and Milstein gave their 1975 monoclonal antibody technique to the world unpatented through the British MRC, an omission later valued in billions.

Benjamin Franklin never patented the lightning rod or stove. Openness built trust and industries; the inventors went unrewarded directly but changed the world..