Last year's position : Not Placed

"Not so much a loose canon as a carpet bomber," as Wired magazine famously put it. Remember all the controversy about Amazon patenting one-click ordering? Aharonian led the legal challenge against that and other bizarre claims to ownership, which seem to have ballooned since this internet thing came along. Google his name to find a hundred other causes to champion or simply go to www.bustpatents.com - guess what's talked about there. To paraphrase one panellist: "A controversial white knight."