From the LexisNexis® “This is real law” editorial team

Thomas Edison was an astute businessman. He is repeatedly credited for things he did not actually invent, which by itself attests to his capacity for improving on the impractical or undeveloped ideas of others and reaping the benefits of patenting his innovations. He also purchased inventions solely to secure access to their patents, and he was not above licensing his own work rather than commercializing it directly. He was a resounding success as a result.

For all that, Edison has a surprisingly mixed legacy today. On the one hand, “the Wizard of Menlo Park” (named after his laboratory in New Jersey) is arguably the United States’ most famous inventor and a testimonial to American ingenuity—a giant who propelled the country and even the world into the 20th century and beyond.

But there is another, more complex side to his personality. Even in his day, Edison was sometimes involved in controversy over his inventions, due in no small measure to his patent interests. Moreover, with 1,093 patents in his name when he died in 1931, Edison was at times criticized for the sheer volume of his holdings, not all of which he exercised or promoted.