V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai: The Controversial Inventor of EMAIL

Conversations with Allan Wolper

V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai received a United States Copyright in 1982 crediting him with being The Inventor of EMAIL, a title he earned as a 14-year-old research scholar at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark, New Jersey. He said he received a copyright certificate on August 30, 1982 , rather than a patent, because patents were not awarded to software discoveries at the time. However, he says he has been forced to defend his creation in a series of high profile court cases and high octane public media debates, that stems from jealous competitors and journalists who don’t respect him because he is an Indian-born dark skinned scientist. Ayyardurai, who was born in India, migrated to the United States when he was seven, was raised in New Jersey, graduated from Livingston High School in Livingston, New Jersey, when he was 14 and went on to earn four separate degrees at MIT. His ownership of the EMAIL copyright remained buried in federal archives until 2012 when The Smithsonian