patent

He's got more than 70 patents, including the way the BB8 rolls around the park, the real life lightsabers, just to name a few.

In Philadelphia in 1843, Nancy Johnson patented a revolutionary ice cream-making machine featuring a crank and beater, which made the process easier for any home cook.

For example, if a large corporation patents—and therefore owns— a particular strain of genetically modified seeds, that can have harmful financial effects on small farmers who have to pay for licenses to plant the seeds each year.

So I started combing through a bunch of patent drawings for massive industrial sized fluid beds, and I noticed that instead of one big inlet, they all had a bunch of small holes to deliver the air.