The modern ballpoint pen is generally credited to László Bíró, a Hungarian- Argentine ink manufacturer and journalist, who, with his brother György, developed the design featuring a small rotating ball at the tip to control ink flow. Bíró secured a patent for a practical ballpoint pen in the late 1930s, and his design was refined into the widely used writing instrument we know today. The British Air Force and later commercial manufacturers helped popularize and standardize the modern ballpoint pen, building on earlier, less successful attempts such as John J. Loud’s 1888 patent, which laid foundational ideas but did not produce a practical, reliable pen for widespread use.