RIP Trevor Baylis

Wind-up radio inventor Trevor Baylis has passed away. The inventor was most famous for the clockwork radio that allowed people to listen to the radio even if electricity was unavailable, such as in the Third-World, but was also a champion of intellectual property rights.

Baylis invented the Baygen clockwork radio in 1991, but found that patent laws failed to protect his idea from being copied. Baylis argued for making laws around intellectual property stronger and was appointed a CBE for campaigning to make theft of intellectual property a white-collar crime.

The radio itself was a symbol of how advanced First World thinking could be applied to solve global problems, and along with concepts such as the Fiat Panda could be seen as the start of a movement for aiding development and starting enterprise with countries.

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