Inventor Ric Richardson profile

RIC Richardson is a prolific inventor from Byron Bay who has taken on the might of Microsoft and won, and now he’s taken on the challenge of protecting children from harmful adult content online.

Richardson gained global attention in 2009 when he won a landmark ruling against Microsoft, with a US court ruling the tech giant had used his software activation technology that prevents piracy without permission.

The US court initially awarded Richardson more than $530 million, but it was reduced on appeal for an undisclosed sum. The inventor says that while the invention was worth about $5 billion a year to Microsoft, the court action was never about the money.

“I really just wanted people to see the value of what I was doing,” he said.

The court action cemented Richardson’s reputation as an inventor and helped him realise he had a unique talent.

“Right through my whole life, there have been moments where I’ve thought, this shouldn’t be this hard. Like, working on the car shouldn’t be this hard. Or, cleaning up the kitchen shouldn’t be this hard. Just basic stuff that other people find really simple; I will get fouled up with those kinds of things.

“But you give me a really complex problem, for some reason, just comes naturally to me.”

The court case also helped him focus on what he’s good at, and seek help from people who are experts in their field. Like Craig Etchegoyen, who the inventor credits as the strategic mind behind the Microsoft victory.

“When Craig took over I realised I was a really bad manager and went back to being an inventor. I realised that as a CEO, I was a good inventor.”

Richardson has developed 80 inventions and founded 10 companies that offer practical solutions to problems.

He said one of his latest inventions came on the back of a dare by the eSafety Commissioner, who challenged him to come up with a solution to children accessing adult content online.

The age validation software he developed, which has now been submitted to the government for assessment, uses AI to gauge whether a user is over 18.

“It’s not a big industry problem, it’s a social personal problem for me because I’ve got five grandkids,” Richardson said.

With millions of people accessing adult content sites every day, including porn, gambling, adult gaming and alcohol sites, he recognised the solution needed to be cost-effective and protect the user’s privacy.

Legislation has already been introduced in some US states, such as Texas, that forces companies producing adult content to be responsible for age validation.

Richardson’s plan for the device to do the AI age validation, rather than the company, could prove the key to the invention’s success.