The two inventors of the thumb compass are well-known Swedish orienteers. Bertil Norman - World Relay Champion in 1966 and one of the early 'teachers of modern orienteering technique'. Arne Yngström is/was also a good orienteer, but later mostly known for his leadership - especially in youth orienteering.
I would have thought that they also invented the clip-on compass, but that this could have been denied through some kind of technicality in the (US) patent process?
In the mid-70ies there was also the
wrist-compass - used for example in 1975 by the winner of O-ringen, Finnish runner Matti Mäkinen. He used a different model than the one pictured in the patent though.