Velcro
Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral invented his first touch fastener when, in 1941, he went for a walk in the woods and wondered why Burdock seeds clung to his coat and dog. He discovered it could be turned into something useful. He patented it in 1955 and subsequently refined and developed its practical manufacture until its commercial introduction in the late 1950s.
Velvet Hands
Adriano Celentano performs the role of Guido Quiller, the inventor and main patent propietor of a virtually indestructible type of armored glass which is used to secure jewelry shop windows. Its success occurs at the chagrin of several influential insurance companies, chiefly the La Suisse Assurance in Geneva, who see their winnings from one of their most profitable income niches dwindling, so they attempt to gain the patent to the invention and then get rid of it altogether. As it so happens, Guido lives enstranged from his wife Petula, the other patent holder to the glass, who would be more accessible to the insurance companies' offers. Her condition for the divorce from Guido would be that he should transfer all his exclusive rights to the production of the Quiller glass - and thereby his whole fortune - to her, whereupon she would sell them to the Swiss Assurance and gain a princely monetary compensation in return.