Word: inventor
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...Research and development is somewhat of a misnomer in Japan," says Robert Lewis, former associate director of the Tsukuba Research Consortium, a hub of high-tech companies in central Japan. "Most of the money goes to improving an existing product, not to basic research." Even when an inventor comes up with a hot product, the country's strong ethic of subordination of individuals to groups holds sway. Take the case of Aki Komikado, an unassuming sales-and-marketing employee who invented the Tamagotchi digital pet in 1996. The toy craze earned her employer, Bandai, $350 million, but Komikado didn...
Even Japan's legal system is tilted against the inventor. Although Japanese patent law requires firms to compensate employees for ideas that pay off, it doesn't specify how much. "There's nothing to stop a company from giving a researcher only a few hundred dollars for a major invention," says Yoshikazu Takaishi, a computer and telecommunications attorney in Tokyo. Furthermore, while U.S. law operates under the "first-invention rule"--awarding the patent to whoever comes up with the idea, regardless of when that person files an application--Japan uses the "first-application rule." So if an inventor's firm...
...short work. Creature Comforts (1989) attached the comments of zoo visitors to claymated lions, bears and baby hippos, with sad and hilarious results. The trio A Grand Day Out (1989), The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995) were mini-epics starring Wallace, a staid, daft suburban bachelor inventor, and his brilliant, long-suffering dog Gromit. Park has now adapted to feature length his obsession with the forlorn wit of caged animals, with the quiet exasperation of rural English life, with complex machinery destined to go wrong--and with bead-eyed, lipless creatures who have more lower teeth...
...Kurzweil is an inventor, entrepreneur and author. His most recent book is The Age of Spiritual Machines
FEETS, DON'T FAIL ME NOW Ever think about all that extra energy you generate just walking around? British inventor Trevor Baylis has. Baylis, whose previous brainstorms include a clockwork radio, has announced the founding of a company to manufacture shoes that produce power using the natural motion of walking. This summer Baylis plans to test his shoes in Africa in a walk across the Namib Desert during which he'll place a phone call to PM Tony Blair (who else?) using only power made by the footwear. That's one small step...