<i>&quot;It is very rare to see the classical case of an inventor who builds a prototype, patents it, and the world then beats a path to their door.&quot;</i><p>Yes, that&#x27;s a problem.  There are some notable successes, though.  A famous one is the electronic florescent lamp ballast, that little piece of electronics in the base of CFLs. It took a lot of litigation, but the inventor finally won and made over $100 million.[1]<p>It used to be easier to sell inventions to big companies because they feared an injunction, putting them out of business. That went away in 2006, with the decision in eBay Inc. v. MercExchange.  Previously, it was possible to get a permanent injunction, as Polaroid did against Kodak when Kodak tried to move into instant photography.  Kodak had 30 days to get out of the business and had to buy all the cameras back.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;1997&#x2F;09&#x2F;01&#x2F;business&#x2F;award-to-lighting-inventor-upheld-on-appeal.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;1997&#x2F;09&#x2F;01&#x2F;business&#x2F;award-to-lighting...</a>