The reference section on the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-it_note#cite_note-0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-it_note#cite_note-0 has s

The reference section on the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-it_note#cite_note-0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-it_note#cite_note-0 has some good links: http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/frysilver.html http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/frysilver.html http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/f08e8a9a-fcd7-11df-ae2d-00144feab49a.html http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/f08e8a9a-fcd7-11df-ae2d-00144... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Fry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Fry So it was actually two inventors at 3M. Spencer Silver discovered the low-tack adhesive in 1968 and spent 5 years promoting it as a product within the company. He eventually hooked up with Art Fry at 3M who recognized its utility for small notes. In order to get the company to recognize it as a useful product, (as I heard the story) they had to personally make the post-it pads and distribute them to the secretaries all around the company. Eventually some executives got hooked on the notes. The initial product launch in 1977 was deemed a failure. It wasn't until 1980 that the product was re-launched successfully. So even after the chemistry was done, 3M's own product developers had to do 8-12 years of internal evangelism to get this new product launched to consumers.