He has been called a “born creative thinker” and “a man of extraordinarily high principle”. Others consider his inventions frivolous and derivative. Not that Frederick Bailier Richardson III – aka Ric Richardson – particularly cares.
As of last week, the 47-year-old inventor, surfer and one-time dirt-biker stands to reap the lion’s share of a $US388 million ($537 million) damages award from Microsoft, after a US jury found the software giant had stolen his technology.
Richardson, who grew up in Lane Cove and never studied beyond year 12 at Hunters Hills High, is the founder of Uniloc, which sued Microsoft in 2003 for violating its patent relating to anti-piracy technology. “I would love to tell you how much money I’ll get,” he told the Herald, “but frankly I don’t know. I don’t get into the operational side of the business. To me, the money is important only in so far as it allows me to further my ideas.”
Despite his low profile, Mr Richardson, who divides his time between Sydney and Huntington Beach, California, is the inventor of dozens of patents. Recent projects include adapting the carbon scrubbing technology found in submarines to car exhaust pipes and collaborating with friend and Nobel nominee Peter Rentzepis, from the University of California, on the use of lasers to achieve atomic level computing.
Photo by Sydney Morning Herald.