Eli Whitney’s cotton gin famously changed the face of the agricultural industry by greatly increasing productivity.Although the gin was enormously popular, Whitney himself struggled to make a profit from it.After receiving a patent for his invention, Whitney and his business partner opted to produce as many cotton gins as possible and to charge farmers a user fee instead of selling them outright. Farmers considered this fee unnecessary and exorbitant, and began manufacturing copies of the cotton gin insteaD、Because of a loophole in the patent law, the many lawsuits brought by Whitney and his partner against the farmers were fruitless. The duo finally agreed to license their cotton gins at a reasonable price. However, due to the costs of their legal battles, they were unable to make the fortune that Whitney had previously predicteD、