Laser: The Inventor, the Nobel Laureate, and the Thirty-Year Patent War 
In 1957 Gordon Gould, then an obscure physicist and perennial graduate student, conceived one of the revolutionary inventions of the twentieth century -- the laser. But before he could submit a patent application, a prominent professor of physics whose office was next door to Gould's filed his own laser patent claims. Gould fought to reclaim the rights to his work, beginning a battle that would last nearly thirty years. Many millions of dollars, as well as the integrity of scientific claims, were at stake in the litigation that ensued. Laser is Gould's story -- and an eye-opening look at the patent process in America, the nexus of the worlds of business and science.
Gould was struggling to finish his Ph.D. thesis when he struck upon the concept for the laser, or Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Light waves, Gould realized, would form a single concentrated beam when reflected between two mirrors inside a gas-filled chamber. Even as he was sketching his invention, Gould foresaw the tremendous potential of the laser in industry, communications, and the military. For three days he feverishly documented his ideas in a notebook, which he had notarized in a candy store near his Bronx apartment.
A small technology firm took a great interest in Gould's laser and soon won a Defense Department contract to develop lasers for the military. Ironically, Gould was denied a security clearance because of his past communist associations, and so was unable to work on his own invention. He could only watch from the sidelines as colleagues tried to build a working laser in a desperate race with larger, better-funded research labs.
Meanwhile, Gould's rival, Charles Townes, had everything that Gould lacked, most notably important academic and government appointments and esteem in the scientific community. In the dispute between the two men, few doubted Townes's word, while nearly everyone scoffed at Gould's claims. But Gould's determination was unyielding, and he fought everyone who stood in his way, including the U.S. Patent Office, major corporations, and the entire laser industry, until he finally won. Gordon Gould, the courts ruled, had invented the laser.
Laser is a grand story of technology and law. Nick Taylor has extensively interviewed Gould as well as other key participants in the battle over the laser's invention and patents. In this riveting account of genius, rivalry, and greed, he shows just how difficult it is for the legendary lone inventor to prevail when the license to a valuable invention is at stake.
Reviews
Having talked to experts about this book, the book is accurate about the patent process and the book is fair about giving credit to others who Gould used to come up with the laser (principally, Townes, who invented the maser, a predecessor of the laser, which works with microwaves).
The book gives a good scorecard of who are the major players.
The terrors of a Patent Office "interference" practice comes to light, and the bias of bureaucracy when they want to dig in their heels and favor one side over the other, simply because of bureaucratic inertia and spite.
The only downside is the book had one passage that was repeated verbatim, which means it was not carefully proofed, at least the copy I had.
The book makes one factual mistake: it says that under the new law, with the term of a patent being not 17 years from when the patent issues but 20 years from when the patent is filed, would have avoided Gould's problem (he had to wait 30 years to get his patent, with a lot of uncertainty). Actually however, the Patent Office today still has the potential for what Gould's problem was: it's called "interference", when two inventors legally claim to have invented the same thing. This was the heart of Gould's problem, with the Patent Office taking sides with other inventors who filed before Gould even though Gould had invented certain aspects of the laser first (the critical amplifier portion of a laser). Even today the Patent Office has a 'first to invent' not a 'first to file' system, unlike the rest of the world, supposedly to protect the small inventor.
Several other reviewers have commented that Townes, Maiman,and Schawlow made huge contributions to the field. Yes, but not the invention of the laser. Their contributions came afterwards. Nor were those later contributions under contention by Gould. So when a reviewer makes the above remarks, it is a non-sequiter. Either the reviewer has totally misunderstood the book, or he is deliberately introducing irrelevancies because he can't get around the basic point.
This point was established after long litigation. Gould had clearly conceived of the idea, and had it timestamped. Under longstanding US Patent rules, that idea and its timestamp trumped all others.
Another point mentioned by several reviewers was that Ted Maiman at Hughes Research Labs was the first to reduce it to practice. That is, he was the first to make a functioning laser. But for decades, it has not been a requirement of the US Patent Office that the reduction to practice is necessary in order to be awarded a patent. This wasn't just some rule made up especially for Gould to benefit from. The gist of being awarded a patent is that you have to describe the invention in sufficient detail for someone skilled in the art to construct it. You [the inventor] do NOT have to construct it. Someone ELSE must be able to do so.
Think about it. In general, it is a key property of a patent. That not only the inventor, but someone else can produce the invention. A patent is not a secret recipe.
Keep in mind that the story is interesting partly because it favors the viewpoint of "the little guy winning out in the end." In fact, the historical record has revealed many other sides that are not documented in "Laser," perhaps because of space or because the author didn't want to break the tempo of the narrative.
Some of the information not fully documented in "Laser" includes 1957 conversations between Gould and Townes about patent processes and technology and the fact that Gould has admitted he had access to Townes' and Schawlow's laser designs circulated late in 1958. There are also questions surrounding the claimed "classified" nature of Gould's projects for TRG. All of which would make good reading.
Hopefully Taylor's book will interest enough readers that the publisher will let the author update the record, showing that there are even more sides to this amazing story--that Gould was an ambitious graduate student partly motivated by a desire for fame and fortune.
If you're looking for a readable insight into the motivation for invention, the patent system, and mankind's determined quest for the honor to be called first, you will enjoy this book. And, with luck, perhaps there will be an update with the as-yet-undocumented twists and turns that make up "the rest of the story".