Eugene Michael “Gene” Lang was born on March 16, 1919, and died on April 8, 2017.
He was an American philanthropist.
Lang was the founder REFAC Technology Development Corporation in 1951.
The REFAC has patents relating to LCDs, ATMs, credit card verification systems, bar code scanners, VCRs, cassette players, camcorders, electronic keyboards, and spreadsheets, and filed thousands of lawsuits against other corporations to secure licensing fees or out-of-court settlements, a business practice of some very large corporations such as Microsoft and Google as well as large startups such as Intellectual Ventures, and sometimes criticized as patent trolling.
Lang was also the chairman of the board at Swarthmore College.
He died at his home in New York City.
Eugene Lang passed away at 98 years old.