"The idea that inventors benefit from patents is a myth" is not really a true statement.
Yes, it is true that if you work for a company you get little benefit (recognition, nominal award), and yes, it is difficult to sell an independent patent to a large company.
However, there are a good number of people who have become very wealthy independent inventors because of patents. There are several in my community which is a small town.
I would say it's a myth that a patent brings instant glory and money. It takes much more work to make a patent pay, not to mention considerable risk of a law suit.
Of course there's marketing and sales. A patent sitting in a drawer like an award is unlikely to do you much good by itself. A patent is just a tool, and like other tools sometimes used properly and sometimes not. . Lots of stuff gets patented both by company's and inventors that shouldn't be, because of "common knowledge" that you should patent things. As a result there is a lot of junk, and the patent office approves the patent for it anyway.
I'll leave those I know out of it, with 1 degree of separation of less to the local inventors I'll keep the relationships. It's really not hard to find examples via Google. I suspect though you've decided the answer and are pretty immutable.
"The idea that inventors benefit from patents is a myth" is not really a true statement.
Yes, it is true that if you work for a company you get little benefit (recognition, nominal award), and yes, it is difficult to sell an independent patent to a large company.
However, there are a good number of people who have become very wealthy independent inventors because of patents. There are several in my community which is a small town.
I would say it's a myth that a patent brings instant glory and money. It takes much more work to make a patent pay, not to mention considerable risk of a law suit.