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Invention Dimensions

The business of inventing.
October 2005

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WORDS BY DARCEL ROCKETT ILLUSTRATION BY NISHANTCHOKSI.COM

 

t's not mad scientists that fuel the business of inventing, rather creative minds that to fulfill our wants and needs.

If necessity is the mother of invention, who is the father of what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology classifies as “the process of devising and producing by independent investigation, experimentation and mental activity something which is useful and which was not previously known or existing?” The desire to get rich quick or the want to contribute something of a grander nature to humanity?

Whatever the answer, the act of inventing has been around since the beginning of time—ever since an ape removed an object from its original context and asserted its use in another (i.e. a bone utilized as a tool for smashing). Jump ahead several thousand years, and the term “invent,” as we currently understand it, came into use during the Renaissance, when the first patents were issued in Venice in 1474. The rulers of that republic instituted a policy for rewarding people who introduced new technology into society by granting them a 10-year monopoly over the usage of that invention. From the caveman to Renaissance man and beyond, the capacity for invention has rested within a person’s proclivity to ask whether something can be done better. The culture of improvement has allowed the products of inventors to pervade our lives—from the alarm clock that wakes us up to the pill that helps us sleep. And the numbers just keep growing.

According to Brigid Quinn, deputy director of the office of public affairs for the US Patent and Trademark Office, there are over 900,000 pending patent applications and 1.5 million active US patents. The USPTO, a fee-funded entity that collects monies at different points in the patent/intellectual property process from those who use the USPTO systems, has a $1.5 billion budget this year; that’s after receiving 377,000 patent applications last year and issuing about 187,000 patents.

The Inventors

So who are the people behind such numbers? They are everyday people like husband and wife Willie and Linda Jacobs, and entrepreneurs like Craig Edelman, who have seen their designs reach the marketplace. The Jacobs’ Tilted Soup Bowl has a slightly angled bottom that brings the contents of the bowl forward for easier intake by the user. It’s been touted as a teaching tool for toddlers as well as an ideal item for the elderly and disabled who may lack the dexterity to eat from a regular bowl. The bowl (www.thetiltedsoupbowl.com) is currently being sold in about 500 Walgreens stores across the country and in the pages of a professional rehabilitation catalog worldwide.

The couple spent more than six figures developing the bowl. A disabled army veteran with limited use of his legs, Willie said he wanted to give something back after seeing other veterans and seniors in hospitals. After receiving a patent in 2001, the couple produced a prototype and then a mold.

“There’s a lot one has to go through to get an invention made, but when you care about something passionately, you take the time, educate yourself and pursue it,” Willie says. “It takes a lot of patience, but you can work your dream out.”

Craig Edelman knows this first-hand. The 32 year old admits he was a man with a bunch of ideas for the mass market but lacking a ton of money to see them through. That is until he decided to pick a few of his ideas and start market research on them.

“I surveyed thousands to find out what idea they would use or buy, and the one that got the best market concept score was the EZcarry,” he says.

The product is a bag handle with a soft grip featuring a double hook that makes carrying shopping bags, garments, wire hangers and other difficult-to-carry items easier. It works by evenly distributing pressure across the hand so the weight (up to 50 lbs) no longer cuts into the fingers and palm (www.theEZcarry.com).

Equipped with a background in brand management from Proctor & Gamble, Edelman found the confidence to quit his job and work with a plastic manufacturing company to make the EZcarry in October, 2003. Six months later, the patent-pending item was created. Now Edelman is selling the EZcarry through QVC and the Harriet Carter Gift Catalog. The EZcarry is also the flagship item for Edelman’s

own housewares company, The HappyWares Company, whose motto is “homewares that provide happy solutions.”

“There’s no short circuit to creating value for people. If you can serve the masses, you can be assured some financial rewards,” he says.

The Process of Inventing

The process of invention entails more than the “eureka!” factor. Per MIT’s look at the architecture of invention: the act is an extended process that stretches over years, and both problem-finding and problem-solving figure centrally in the process. Inventors must be able to learn from failures, abandon prior viewpoints and crossbreed diverse areas of knowledge to discover the problem and solution. Inventors tend to have personalities that combine the need to create with resourcefulness, resilience, non-conformity, unquenchable optimism, high persistence, willingness to delay gratification and a critical stance toward their own work. Add to that mental flexibility, hands-on skills and 24-hour alertness to practical problems and opportunities, and you can see that the average inventor has to be a true multi-tasker. Most inventors juggle all of the demands of the inventing process (including promoting the product and marshalling financial resources once the concept is created) with full-time jobs.

Looking beyond this formula for invention, chance and timing play significant roles in products finding commercial success. Even with all the inventors’ hard work, only 3% of patented inventions come to market as viable products. Of those, only a few make their owners rich, probably less than 0.05%, says Ted Van Cleave, the mind behind www.totallyabsurd.com, a website of weird inventions submitted to the USPTO office. But low success rates don’t seem to have curbed the inventing craze.

“I think most inventors invent because they find themselves in a situation for which they need a solution, and they can’t find a product on the market,” he says. “The guy who invented the toilet night-light did so because his wife complained about him missing the toilet in the night. The woman who invented the triple-decker stroller did so because she had triplets. Then once they have a prototype of their invention, they start thinking of making a ton of money from it, but the idea was never about the money at first. It’s a fun process.”

For more information on promoting and protecting your invention ideas, visit:
www.stopfakes.gov/smallbusiness
www.uspto.gov
www.inventorsdigest.com
www.uiausa.org

Absurd invention patents FROM Ted Van Cleave

The Tricycle Lawnmower (issued 1984): Harness your child’s boundless energy to power this pedal mower. Not recommended for children afraid to lose limbs.

Extreme Comb Over (issued 1975): You shouldn’t be able to get a patent for combing over a bald man’s spot; they’ve been doing that since caveman days.

The Gerbil Shirt (issued 1999): Take your furry friend out on the town inside plastic-tube passageways that encircle your shirt.

Dummy Chicken Farmer (issued 1981): Assuming that chickens fatten up with human interaction, an inventor patented a mannequin swung around the coup by a hook in his hat. Who’s really the dummy here?

Hospital Happiness (issued 2000): If only it fulfilled its promising name. But it will take more than a flap of cloth (to cover the bits hospital gowns notoriously tend to forget) to bring an unceasing smile to your next hospital visit.

The Life Expectancy Watch (issued 2002): Do you really want to know how long you have to live?

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