Invention Designs Free to Use by Anyone for the Benefit of Mankind

Magnus Sköld, our Senior Industrial Designer, recently shared an interesting Quora thread with our team. Quora is a platform where users can ask and answer questions amongst themselves. The topic in this particular thread was about public invention designs where the inventor refused to register the rights. By doing so the inventor would help ensure their inventions would benefit mankind as a whole. Below, we’ve picked some of the most intriguing inventions where the inventor took the phrase sharing is caring to a whole new level.

Dolos

This answer is from the user Davide Fiore. While the name might not sound familiar, the dolos is an important invention for those who live near coastal cities. The best description of this public invention design? Uniquely large geometric concrete shapes. In great numbers, dolosse protect harbor walls against the erosion caused by powerful waves. Dolosse deflects the incoming energy of waves. The public invention design of the dolos was originally credited to the South African Eric Mowbray Merrifield. However, findings indicate that Aubrey Kruger first invented the dolos in 1963. Neither Eric nor Aubrey patented this design.

Three-Point Seat Belt

The Quora user Shawn Phenomenon gives us a bit of insight into this critical invention that’s necessary for our daily lives. The Swedish engineer, Nils Bohlin, first introduced the three-point seatbelt to Volvo in 1959. The design was in fact, patented when it was first invented. It was not a public invention design right off the bat. However, this is one of the However, Volvo eventually allowed this invention free to use by other car manufacturers. By 1968, all vehicles in the US needed to have a three-point seatbelt installed.

World Wide Web

This last one comes from the Quora user Mike Milner. Yes, this isn’t a physical hardware product but it’s an invention that’s too important not to mention. It’s a public invention design that has redefined every aspect of our daily lives since it was first invented decades ago. Initially, this invention, called project ENQUIRE, was designed to be used internally at CERN. The objective was to share information easily among CERN researchers from one computer to another. He used this as a launching pad for the internet. Using the same technology, he realized that they could scale the capabilities of project ENQUIRE to share information between all computers around the world.