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Hi Jim-
I am confident that you will be taken by surprise by the answer.
Fermi got a patent related to the A-Bomb. I was never sufficiently
curious to look up the patent - I have no reason to think it is not in the
public domain - so I don't know the details. Fermi "prosecuted" the
patent, meaning he wrote the application and dealt with the patent office,
himself. I know these things because I was once in the Chicago law firm
of Fitche, Even, Tabin and Welch. Julius Tabin had been a physicist,
working with Fermi on the Manhattan project. After the war he became a
physics prof at MIT, and while at MIT he attended Harvard Law School. He
then left physics for the full time practice of law. His son graduated
from Harvard Med School and then went on one of the successful Mt. Everest
expeditions.
I have a vague memory that Fermi collected some royalties from the US
government on his patent. There may have been a lawsuit (check google).
Tabin radiated wealth when I was working for him. I suspect that much of
his financial success is owed to contacts he made while working on the
Manhattan project.