Gordon Gould, the Inventor of the Laser, Has Died

Gordon Gould, the inventor of the word "laser" died Friday at the Lenox Hill Hospital, Manhattan, because of an infection.

Gould published his first conclusions on laser research in 1957, when he graduated from Columbia University. Gould's paper is called "Some rough calculations on the feasibility of a LASER: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation", and two years later the inventor submitted a patent request.

U.S. Patent Office rejected it, which lead to legal battle which lasted until 1987, when a federal judge decided to grant Gould the patent for the optical laser.

Since then and until it expired, Gould received almost $30 million from license fees. It's interesting to notice that if Gould had been granted the patent in 1959, he wouldn't have got any money, the laser being widely used in '80s.

In fact, Gould benefited from his own invention, in 1984 the scientist undergoing surgery aiming at correcting a detached retina.


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