That’s really cool! My invention was a means of accelerated processing for images that makes it cheaper to produce what used to be dedicated color processing chips for digital cameras. While these are no longer used today, it did find some applications. At this point there’s a few libraries out there implementing some of it as open source with my explicit permission in the hopes they might find some use in the future and contribute to society that way.
Following your edit, I’m sorry to hear that the patent system couldn’t protect him. This isn’t the first case I’ve heard of. Honestly, you have to be rich, which I think is completely intentional to ensure that only big business can benefit from a patent.