The first article in the Huffington Post’s History of Email series tells the story of V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai, a Newark, New Jersey boy who is credited with inventing both the first email program and the term “email” in 1978 at the age of 14. Ayyadurai received a copyright registration for the software in 1982, which bore the prescient title “EMAIL.” Sadly, the multi-zillion-dollar brand potential of the name EMAIL was apparently not foreseen, and trademark registration was never secured for the now generic term. Read the full article here.

Reposted from Huffington Post.