1. Key Action Nr CZ01-KA This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. “This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein."

2. Contact lenses

3. The inventor The contact lenses were first made by Otto Wichterle.
He started working on them in his laboratory, but after years of no success, the university stopped giving him money, so he had to work on them at home.
He made the first model with kids building kit „Merkur“ and dynamo from his son‘s bike.

4. Otto Wichterle

5. Troubles with patents
The license agreement was sold to american company which afterwards made a lot of money.
But since the contact lenses were made in USA, other companies started to breach the patents.
American companies, started courts about patents and because the Czech Republic was a part of the USSR it was hard for Otto Wichterle to join these courts.
The courts ended good for the Czech Republic, but we lost approximately 1 billion dollars.