Not many people have given their names to the English language. Among those who have is Laszlo Josef Biro. He was the maker of the first “Biro”, a name still used around the world for his most successful invention（發明）, the ballpoint pen.
Biro patented（申請專利） his first pen in 1938. It had a tiny ball bearing in the tip which picked up ink as it turned against the paper. During the Second World War, Biro went to Argentina（阿根廷） where he had some success selling his product.
However, he never took a patent in the United States. Partly because of this, American companies such as Bic, Parker, and Papermate have dominated（支配、統治） the writing market ever since the ballpoint pen became popular in the 1950s.