Erik Bjontegard’s life has been a journey fueled by curiosity, resilience, and an adventurous spirit. Born in the U.S., raised in Norway, and educated in England, he’s done it all—from snow shoveling in Norway to dishwashing and being a waiter serving the Norwegian King, to working as a windsurfing instructor on a lake filled with ice-cold glacier water. With a full scholarship from the Norwegian government and Norway’s oil industry, Erik earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Salford, England, all while trying to keep his vintage and temperamental Lotus sports car running with whatever tools he could scrounge up.
What was his first job after getting his engineering degree? Working in deep-sea robotics, supporting divers in the frigid North Sea to support Norway’s oil exploration efforts. That career ended the day he found himself stuck in a two-man submarine on the ocean floor. His robotic arm saved his and his captain’s life. After watching Top Gun, he packed up, moved to San Diego without knowing a soul, and launched the next chapter of his life.
In San Diego, Erik began as an aerospace test engineer, working with NASA on the Space Shuttle, researching advanced materials for the Department of Defense and for deep space explorations, and certifying Boeing, Airbus, and McDonnel-Douglas airliners for the FAA. This was the pre-digital era when engineers designed everything by hand on vellum paper at huge drafting tables—no computers or calculators in sight. The shift from pen to PC was revolutionary, and now, Erik sees a similar shift with AI—one that he believes will change the innovation landscape even more profoundly.
Erik’s career continued to evolve in unexpected ways. He launched a fashion jewelry company with his then-wife, selling products on QVC and HSN and opening retail stores with their own brand of clothing and make-up in multiple retail malls. They also sold to the biggest department stores, but when 9/11, all orders were canceled, customers avoided shopping malls, and the business folded, as did his marriage. Raising his young son Hans Christian half the time, Erik dusted himself off and built a career in real estate, becoming a licensed broker and working on land development in Southern California. Yet, the 2008 financial crisis forced another pivot. This time, Erik approached Qualcomm with an idea they liked enough to buy it and hire him as a consultant to the C-suite. Later, he became an executive in Qualcomm’s Corporate R&D, helping bring new technologies to market, including augmented reality (AR), IoT, and foundational work on what would become 5G. He wrote his first patent, which was awarded while there.
In 2012, Erik left Qualcomm on good terms, helping deliver use cases on Qualcomm’s technologies. After two years, he started to write his first patent on his own. His invention was to be tested and used by the company he had founded, Total Communicator Solutions, Inc. This became the extension of the Spark Compass® platform, a pioneering contextually intelligent communication system that bridges the digital and physical worlds. Since then, Erik has filed over 35 patents and been awarded patents across the U.S., EU, UK, France, Germany, China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Mexico. His awarded patent portfolio is considered foundational in augmented intelligence and has been cited in over 400 patents by some of the world’s leading innovators—Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm, Google, Facebook, Walmart, Citibank, and AMEX, among them. In a field where most patents receive just a few citations, Erik’s innovations stand out, having influenced entire industries. Hailed as foundational, it connects the physical and digital.
The journey wasn’t all work. Erik lives in San Diego with his sweetheart and best friend, Courtney, who supports and inspires his work every day. His son, Hans Christian, now works in Washington D.C. in Congress, supporting the advancement of AI in education. His stepchildren are following their own unique paths: Lexie is completing her master’s in forensic psychology, Cy just graduated from Chapman University and is moving to D.C. to work in politics, and Monte, with a double degree in forensic science and justice, is planning on law school after he finishes backpacking through the Far East with his surfboard and girlfriend.
Erik wrote this book to support the next generation of inventors, old and young alike, hoping to share the lessons he learned the hard way. When he was working on the Space Shuttle, designing with pens on vellum, he could never have imagined the tools available to inventors today. Now, as he sees AI tools transforming every stage of the patent process, he hopes to inspire others to use these advancements to push the limits of innovation—believing that AI should enhance human ingenuity, not replace it. This guide is a call to leverage the best of both worlds: timeless curiosity and the tools of tomorrow, with the hope that it will lead to breakthroughs that improve humanity.
And for Erik, as always, these are indeed “Exciting Times!”
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