Black History Month 2025: Celebrating the Patents of Pioneering Black Inventors

As this year’s Nobel laureate Omar Yaghi said, “science is the greatest equalising force in the world.” Yet many communities still face disparities in health, education, connectivity, and economic opportunity. STEM can help close these gaps through robust digital communications that keep people connected and enable rapid relief, voting technologies that make participation easier to trust, cleaner energy systems that use resources more efficiently, interactive tools that enrich learning and public spaces, and accessible health technologies that improve everyday communication and quality of life. With the above in mind, it is inspiring to spotlight black innovators whose patented ideas are already turning this promise of STEM into everyday progress.

Black History Month is as good a time as any to honour and celebrate some of the technical contributions of black people working in STEM to the world we live in, so in this article I explore some modern-day technologies developed by black people solving problems at the core of how we call, vote, hear and play.

Dr. Marian R. Croak

The telephone may have slain distance, but the internet now carries the burden of keeping us reliably connected, and Dr. Marian R. Croak’s work is central to that reliability. An important Voice over Internet Protocol invention, covered by patent US 7,599,359, addresses end-to-end performance monitoring in packet networks to keep calls intelligible under real-world conditions. Croak also helped facilitate small-donor philanthropy at scale with US 7,715,368 on text-to-donate, a mechanism that proved its value during disaster relief efforts in 2010. Taken together with a substantial wider portfolio, these patents form part of the infrastructure that underpins remote work, telehealth, and everyday family calls. [1], [2]

Dr. Lonnie G. Johnson

Dr. Lonnie G. Johnson’s inventive arc spans play and power. The Super Soaker (see US 5,074,437) redefined a consumer category through elegant pressure management. More recently, his Johnson Thermo-Electrochemical Converter (JTEC) filings, for example US 10,522,862, US 11,239,513, and US 11,799,116, relate to solid-state architectures that convert heat directly into electricity via membrane-electrode assemblies. The proposition is straightforward but significant: fewer moving parts, higher potential efficiency, and a route to harvesting industrial waste heat that could materially improve energy productivity. [3]

Lanny S. Smoot

In themed environments, the best engineering vanishes into the experience. Lanny S. Smoot’s portfolio exemplifies that principle. His retractable, internally illuminated“lightsabre” (US 10,065,127) pairs clever mechanics with controlled optics to create an effect that is both theatrical and robust. Across more than a hundred patents, Smoot’s work extends to sensing and interactive systems that allow venues to modulate content in response to guest behaviour, technology with clear applications beyond entertainment, including education and public exhibitions. [4]

Dr. Juan E. Gilbert

Trust in elections is built on processes that are easy to use and easy to audit. Juan E. Gilbert’s recent patents, US 11,334,295 for a transparent interactive interface for ballot marking and US 11,036,442 for a transparent interactive printing interface, are designed to make voter intent visible and verifiable at the point of selection. By allowing users to see exactly what is being printed as choices are made, these systems aim to reduce cognitive load, particularly for voters with disabilities, while strengthening paper-based audit trails. [5]

Prof. Fred McBagonluri

For custom hearing aids, small improvements in modelling and manufacture result in large gains in everyday usability. Prof. Fred McBagonluri’s co-invented filings, US 8,096,383 for tapered vents in ultra-small in-ear devices, US 8,135,153 for automatic wax-guard modelling, US 8,224,094 for left and right side detection of 3D ear impressions, and US 7,979,244 for aperture detection in hearing-aid shells, target pain points that historically caused feedback and user discomfort. The outcome is faster production, better fit, and more consistent acoustic performance. [6]

Summary

It is no secret that black people are underrepresented in STEM, which is why it is especially meaningful to me, as a black person with a STEM background, to see black inventors creating tools that work towards solving the problems above. As a patent attorney, it is even more meaningful to me to see those solutions protected by patents, because that recognition helps turn ideas into scalable innovations, attracts investment, and secures credit for the inventors shaping our future.