I-Pad

The I-Pad is a sporting protection implement used by footballers. It was invented by Larry Cockburn after a conversation in a pub. Cockburn recalled; "We noted that a footballer's shins are protected from being kicked by shinpads. But what happens if he gets kicked in the eye? That's right, he gets blinded. So why not wear pads over the eyes as well?"

The obvious answer - that you wouldn't be able to see the ball if you had two bloody great pads over your eyes - didn't stop him from pressing ahead with the launch of his new product or from commissioning one of Europe's most prestigious advertising agencies, Saatchi and Saatchi, to market it. It was they who renamed it the I-Pad rather than Cockburn's preferred 'Eye Protection Shields' after a long and sometimes bitter argument. The marketing strategy was, alas, a failure and Cockburn Industries was wound up just one year later having sold a grand total of no units.

Cockburn is currently suing Apple for theft of his intellectual property after they used the expensively purchased name of his product for their latest pointless computer.