The 50th anniversary of the laser

One of the greatest inventions of the 20th century, the laser, first appeared in 1960. Fifty years on, its technological innovations have revolutionized the modern world. Since the first few patents were approved to the laser inventors, numerous patents involving the laser have been granted on a worldwide scale. Rewards to the inventors were immense, including Nobel Prizes. Unsurprisingly such a rewarding area of invention led to intellectual property and patent rights disputes. This paper explores these exciting, but contentious, early years of the laser.