A Sanitarian's Inventions and the Patent He Never Got

About a decade later, in 1962, Ronald Cohen, Benjamin L. Novak, and Epifanio Sineno published a paper in the journal The Sanitarian describing the invention and its results. Among unapproved gas space heaters in New York City, reported carbon monoxide incidents fell from 17 in 1956 to two in 1960. Fatalities dropped from seven to zero. After the city enacted Local Law 79 in December 1957, requiring approved heaters in multiple dwellings, the authors reported that "not a single case" of carbon monoxide poisoning was traced to an approved gas-fired space heater.

Cohen reads the 1962 paper as a partial substitute for the patent his father never had. "Knowing how much attribution mattered to Dad, I now believe that the article was in part an effort to create the public record that the City's decision not to patent had denied him 10 years earlier," he writes.

Ronald Cohen's second innovation came in 1984, after he had moved to Middlesex Borough, New Jersey. He and colleagues developed a system to give emergency responders immediate access to information about industrial hazards during incidents. Using a desktop computer and a CB radio network, the system could connect through the New Jersey State Police to FEMA. It was tested during three major emergencies in 1985. After a chemical plant explosion, responders had a computerized diagram of the facility and details on chemical storage, tanks, hydrants, and protective equipment.

Cohen draws a line from his father's work to his own career in intellectual property law. "Dad taught me that innovation begins with seeing real problems that others have learned to tolerate," he writes. "He taught me to solve these problems. He taught me to persist, even if that initial recognition passed you by."