# What to Do With a Million Dollar Invention Idea?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-a-million-dollar-invention-idea/526875>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 29, 2010, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-a-million-dollar-invention-idea/526875 "2010-01-29T12:54:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-a-million-dollar-invention-idea/526875/21 "2010-01-29T23:47:50Z")

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> [@ElvisL1ves](#):
>
> [The Selden patent](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selden_patent) for cars.
> 
> [The Wright Brothers aileron patent](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wright_brothers_patent_war) for airplanes.
> 
> Both seriously stifled development in their respective industries for a number of years.

I was actually thinking of the NTP lawsuit against RIM, which ended up netting NTP some $600 million for having this idea for email on your phone. NTP did absolutely no development work to actually bring a product to market. RIM did all the heavy lifting in making the Blackberry a real, functional device.

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