Licensing the man of the Millennium!
We all know that, particular in these until his death in 1931, his legacy of The Edison Innovation Foundation
turbulent economic times that suc- 1093 patented inventions, including was founded ten years ago in order
cess stories come from companies the phonograph, the electric light, and to raise funds needed to preserve the
or individuals that have found ways the motion picture camera changed seven Thomas Edison sites in the US,
of differentiating themselves from the all our worlds. In fact, many of today’s together with his New Jersey head-
crowd and re-inventing themselves as industries simply would not exist quarters and the proflic amounts of
more original or smarter. without the groundwork laid by this Edison papers and assets.
Innovation, without doubt, is driving extraordinary man who was selected In fact, on his death, Edison left more
corporate culture more than ever be- ‘Man of the Millennium’ by Life Maga- than 400,000 tangible assets and a
fore. But innovation is not something zine, beating other greats such as Gal- staggering five million pieces of paper
new or just the latest marketing buz- lileo and Leonardo daVinci. – an estate that, according to Edison
zword. It’s a way of doing business He is even credited with modern us- Innovation Foundation Chairman and
and creating opportunities. age of the word ‘hello’ which he used President, John P Keegan explained is
Born in 1847, Thomas Alva Edison, when testing telephones with his extraordinarily valuable. “Edison’s leg-
without doubt the greatest innova- friend Alexander Graham Bell. acy of artefacts and papers are worth
tor in American history understood Edison overcame enormous personal around $2.6 billion”.
the true meaning of innovation. Up problems to become the extraordi- The initial aim of the Foundation was
nary man that he was. He was deaf to raise $90 million to help with the
in one ear and had no formal higher preservation, and also to help support
education. At school, he was a poor science education and research.
student. When a schoolmaster called To date, according to John Keegan,
him “addled,” his mother took him out they have raised $30 million towards
of the school and proceeded to teach their goal – partly through donations
him at home. Many years later, Edison to the Foundation and partly through
said, “My mother was the making of licensing, with a major global program
me. She was so true, so sure of me, now underway.
and I felt I had some one to live for, Licensing is a key element of the Foun-
some one I must not disappoint.” At dation’s fundraising and John Keegan
an early age, he showed a fascination believes that Thomas Edison presents
for mechanical things and for chemical a unique opportunity to benefit from
experiments. And this, coupled with a very special brand.
his extraordinary character and his “Thomas Edison was Man of the Mil-
perseverance, proved a mix that, over lennium”, he explained. “When he was
the years undoubtedly changed the alive, he was synonymous with quality
world. In fact, many scholars believe products and, above all else, innova-
that fully one-eighth of the world’s tion. All his inventions had one thing in
gross domestic product flows directly common – they improved the qualita-
from his ideas. This equates to some- tive lives of people. Because of this,
where between $10 and $15 trillion we have very clear ideas of how Edi-
Thomas Edison at 37
dollars. son’s legacy can help manufacturers
72
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