He has been called the Matt Drudge of the patent community--and Greg Erroneous. Since 1993 Gregory Aharonian has distributed a freewheeling e-newsletter several times a week that both irks and tantalizes with its mix of information, invective and gossip. Aharonian makes his living by doing literature searches on the originality of patent applications. But he has made his reputation from his newsletter. Paying the publication costs himself, he attracts 4,500 subscribers, among them patent attorneys, inventors and even some patent examiners. Aharonian talked to Scientific American's Gary Stix about how he has taken on the stodgy world of patenting.

How did you develop a reputation as a gadfly?

This article was originally published with the title Patent Pamphleteer.

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