The barcode wasn't a success story. Not yet, anyway.
In a series of blog posts, Marco Coolen offers a glimpse into his work as a Dutch and European patent attorney at AOMB.
Published on October 4, 2026
Marco, a patent attorney at AOMB since 2013, shares his expertise on IO+ about patents—how they work, why they matter, and when they lose their value.
When people look back on successful innovations, it often seems as though success was inevitable. As if everyone immediately saw how brilliant the idea was. The barcode proves the opposite.
The concept was conceived as early as the late 1940s by Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver. The idea was surprisingly simple: a machine-readable code that would allow products to be identified automatically. In theory, this could speed up operations in stores, reduce errors, and automate entire administrative processes.
A revolutionary idea. Except no one was ready for it. Or rather: the world wasn’t ready for it yet.
The technology existed, but everything else needed to support it was missing. There were hardly any scanners that were reliable enough. Computers were expensive and rare. Stores didn’t have systems capable of processing the information. And without stores investing in scanners, no one had a reason to label products with barcodes.
As a result, the invention barely got off the ground for years. Not because the idea was bad, but because the necessary conditions were missing.
You see this much more often with innovation. Entrepreneurs understandably focus on the technology. Does it work? Is it faster? Smarter? Cheaper? But the market often asks a different question: can I use it today? An innovation never exists in a vacuum. It needs suppliers, users, standards, infrastructure, and sometimes even a behavioral shift across entire sectors.
It wasn’t until the 1970s that those pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. Computers became more affordable, scanners more reliable, and retailers saw the benefits of automatic registration. That’s when something emerged that was at least as important as the technology itself: standardization. Everyone was speaking the same language. That turned out to be the real breakthrough.
The moment manufacturers, stores, and software providers could all read the same barcode, a network emerged. And as with many networks, the value grows exponentially as soon as enough parties join in. The technology itself had hardly changed over all those years. The environment, however, had.
You see that same pattern today with the QR code. That technology, too, had existed for years before it was adopted on a massive scale. For a long time, the QR code remained primarily a niche solution for logistics and manufacturing. It wasn’t until smartphones came standard with cameras and consumers grew accustomed to digital behavior that the breakthrough occurred. Suddenly, the infrastructure was right there in everyone’s pocket.
The lesson from both the barcode and the QR code is surprisingly simple. A good invention isn’t automatically a good innovation. For that to happen, several other factors must align. Is the market ready for it? Do customers understand how to use it? Are the necessary systems in place? Can you actually implement the technology without having to change the entire environment first?
If the answer to those questions is no, even a brilliant idea can sit on the shelf for years. The barcode ultimately became one of the most successful innovations ever—not because the technology changed, but because timing, standardization, and adoption finally came together at the same moment. And sometimes that’s the difference between a forgotten patent and a global standard.
The World of Patents
With the help of Dutch and European patent attorney Marco Coolen (AOMB), we can better understand the world of patents. How do they work, why are they important, and when do they lose their usefulness?