Blog
Posted on November 10, 2024
Make your product in the USA and control your supply chain In today's global marketplace, choosing where to manufacture your new invention is a critical decision that can impact everything from product quality and cost stability to market perception. While overseas manufacturing often tempts inventors with lower initial costs, domestic manufacturing offers compelling advantages that deserve serious consideration, especially for those just starting their journey. Why Consider U.S. Manufacturing? Stable Costs Sourcing in the USA means your product is not subject to changes in tariff rates, currency exchange rates and changes in shipping costs. Shorter Supply Chain Products made overseas ...
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Posted on November 02, 2024
A trademark is a great way to add protection for your invention when you go to market. Its far less expensive than a patent and far easier to enforce, but it covers just the identity of the product. Here is a quick overview: Types of Trademarks: Word Marks: These protect your brand name itself. For example, if your invention is called "The Super Scrubber," registering this as a word mark prevents others from using that exact name for similar products. Cost-Saving Tip: Start with a strong, unique name that's less likely to face opposition from existing trademarks, reducing potential legal ...
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Posted on October 25, 2024
Copyright is an underutilized form of protection by inventors. It has some great things going for it: It is free (but registering for $65 can be worthwhile)It lasts for a lifetime + 70 yearsThere's no examination, no renewals or maintenance fees In the following vlog I discuss how inventors might use it: Copyright exists automatically when you create a work of art, take a photograph, write music, write a book or a blog post, make a video or a movie. Copyright protects buildings, sculpture and choreography. If something incorporates "artistic expression" that artistic expression can be protected by copyright. With ...
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Posted on October 19, 2024
Prandtl Dynamics was founded by students in Toronto Summary of reporting in the Wall Street Journal (10/19/24) by Alistair Macdonald:Earlier this year, a team of four University of Toronto students—Parth Mahendru, Anna Poletaeva, Michael Acquaviva, and Asad Ishaq—developed a low-cost anti-drone device using ultrasound waves, outperforming major defense companies like Boeing in a military tech competition. Their device, built from car speakers and developed at home with $17,000 of their own funds, destabilizes drone navigation systems mid-flight, causing them to crash or veer off course. The students named their startup Prandtl Dynamics after aerospace pioneer Ludwig Prandtl. Despite limited resources ...
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Posted on October 12, 2024
In the video above, what the invention does is explained within 7 seconds Make Your Point Quickly and Use a Generic Soundtrack. To move your invention forward, it's essential to clearly explain it to partners, investors, licensees, retailers and customers. Your explanation should be brief, and 95% of the time, it should focus on what the invention does—not how it works or why it was created. For some inventions, a single image may suffice, but most will benefit from a short video, ideally under a minute. A classic video structure is to first present the problem your invention solves ...
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Posted on September 27, 2024
Never give up. Never give in. So long as the fight is worth it. One of my pearls of wisdom to every inventor is that they should find the one thing that will cause them to give up and attack that thing first. If they get past that first killer, move on to the next and then the next. Typically those things are:#1 Confirm there's a market#2 Confirm it can be manufactured at a profitable price#3 Confirm intellectual property opportunities/risks Jump those three hurdles and you probably have an invention worth fighting for. The question then becomes, how long do ...
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Posted on September 05, 2024
Choosing the right help depends on your invention and you Finding the right help depends on your invention and you. Before seeking help, do an assessment of yourself and your invention so you can target your search and find the right fit for your needs. You may want someone to handle everything for you or may only need help in a few areas. Consider: INVENTION How much commercial potential (is there a strong market)?What technologies and materials?What market?What stage of development? YOU Personal capabilities for engineering, prototyping, patent writing, marketing?Business abilities (sales, leadership, finance)?Financial resources?Goal: licensing or venturing Spend as ...
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Posted on August 21, 2024
How do you remove them without making things worse? Switzerland is facing a significant environmental challenge with unspent military munitions lying at the bottom of its lakes, particularly Lake Thun, Lake Brienz, and Lake Lucerne. These munitions, dumped between 1918 and 1964, pose a potential threat to the delicate ecosystems of these lakes. To address this, Switzerland has launched a competition offering a prize of 50,000 Swiss francs (approximately $58,000) for innovative proposals to safely remove these munitions. The competition aims to find environmentally friendly solutions that do not exacerbate the problem. Although there is no immediate crisis, as regular ...
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Posted on August 11, 2024
We are thrilled to extend our heartfelt congratulations to Kama Johnson and her family on the successful launch of the Tradezzies app! Their journey from a brilliant idea to a fully realized product is an inspiring testament to vision, perseverance, and unwavering commitment to bringing their concept to life. Tradezzies was born from the personal experiences of Kama and her daughters. They found themselves lending and borrowing items within their family and friends’ circle. The idea for Tradezzies came from their desire to make this process simpler, more organized, and even enjoyable. Her daughters played a crucial role in ...
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Posted on July 31, 2024
Confirm your invention idea before you launch The most consequential decision you’ll make as an inventor is deciding whether or not to go forward with an idea. Here are five confirmation steps to take prior to making a full commitment. FRIENDS and FAMILY“THAT is a GREAT IDEA!!!” I think. My mind starts spinning with thoughts of who will buy it, how much fun it will be to sell and all of the money I’ll make. Then… I ask my wife or daughters or co-workers or friends (sometimes all of them) and - most of the time - they crush the ...
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Posted on June 14, 2024
Servings of no" are part of the inventing experience. George was a proud and successful older man. He’d survived the Holocaust as a child. Then he escaped communist Romania with only the clothes on his back. He’d made his way to America where he built a successful tool company that he had retired from. We’d just finished pitching George’s invention to a young engineer who worked for one of the world’s largest brands. The young engineer had said no and was beginning to explain why. George couldn’t take it. He looked squarely at the young man and in his ...
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Posted on June 03, 2024
"To a hammer everything looks like a nail." Successful inventors do not work alone, they get help from professionals along the way. Finding someone good and trustworthy is obviously important. Equally important is finding the right help at the right time. At the beginning stages, good advice from a specialist might steer you in the wrong direction - be careful about engaging a company or adviser who specializes primarily in one aspect. For example, if your first adviser is a patent attorney, they will give you advice centered around patent protection. That’s how they see the world and that’s exactly ...
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Posted on April 06, 2024
Gator-Grip patents have expired. That's why so many knockoffs exist today.If your invention idea is successful it will be copied. That's a simple fact that every inventor must face. Patents, trademarks and copyright (collectively known as intellectual property or IP) are tools you can use to fight the copies. But how do they actually work?The #1 thing to know is that you have to enforce IP on your own. The government doesn't do it for you. It is up to you to inform the infringer that they are infringing and then either negotiate a settlement or sue them in ...
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Posted on March 30, 2024
Make a dartboard out of rejection letters. It was 35 years ago but I'm still elevated about the rejection letter we got from the tool reviewer at the Whole Earth Catalog. Our product, the SqueezeDriver, seemed like a perfect fit. Whole Earth was a crunchy granola pro-environment publication and the SqueezeDriver was mechanical and wouldn't add toxic battery waste to the earth. It also gave you a feel for what you were doing, great for precision work where you don't want to strip screws. We'd sent the tool reviewer a sample and he responded with a letter. A long letter ...
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Posted on March 25, 2024
Licensing deals are rare. When they happen, the process can sometimes take up to a year. However, sometimes things go fast. Before you make a first phone call to a licensing prospect, know what "yes" means for you.One of the first things a prospective licensee will ask is a test question: what are you looking for? If your answer is unrealistic (for them), they'll walk away in an instant. You may get the chance to say "only kidding," but maybe not. The best way to know what "yes" should be is to take a hard look at your alternatives. If ...
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Posted on March 19, 2024
DALL-E image from prompt: "create an image of an AI powered social media platform" AI is poised to upend the world in ways we can barely imagine. Work, relationships, health care, law, government, military... Every aspect of our lives will be affected in some manner. Think about how the Internet has changed things and multiply by, I don't know (nobody knows), something, let's say 10. You can quote me: Mike Marks says that, "AI will be 10X bigger than the Internet."The multiplier is meaningless. But the point is not. So far we've been tickled by fun toys like Chat GPT ...
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Posted on February 25, 2024
Most all of us can handle the truth. But sometimes it takes time to digest. And what we believe is true can change when additional information becomes available. A core value at Invention City is telling inventors what we believe is true. Often that means saying an invention does not look like a good licensing opportunity to us, based on the information available at this time. What's critical in that statement is that new information can change our opinion.Last year a young mom on a tight budget submitted an idea to us that, at first glance, I thought was terrible ...
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Posted on February 14, 2024
There's a stat floating around that 5% of inventions make money. That stat is insanely optimistic for a typical independent inventor. The odds of getting a licensing deal for an average invention that pays income, say upwards of $10,000/year for 5+ years, are probably less than 0.01% (1/10,000). For the best of the best inventions, supported by a team of great professionals, the odds of making $100,000+/year for 5+ years rise to something like 50/50. These guesstimates come from my experience of developing and licensing and manufacturing inventions of our own and from having reviewed over 10,0000 invention submissions over ...
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Posted on January 27, 2024
Green Light Your Invention -- As early as possible, know what you want in a deal for your invention and be prepared for someone to make an offer. Over time what you want will vary. It's not important to be consistent. What matters is being ready.When an offer comes it's often a one time thing. If you aren't ready you may lose the only or best chance you'll ever get. What should you want in a deal? That depends on your alternatives. You need to be realistic about this. A good deal is one that's better than your alternatives.You may ...
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Posted on January 11, 2024
Feedback is necessary but listening to criticism and objections is hard. I create new products and content for a living and ask people for feedback all of the time. When I ask for feedback, I say, "Praise will not make this better. Criticism will. Tell me the truth. Point out the problems."But I am human. So, even though I asked for criticism in strong terms, I really just want to hear how fantastic it is and how wonderful I am.When the asked-for criticism arrives I thank the critic and then silently feel defensive and tell myself all of the reasons ...
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Posted on January 01, 2024
Image by Discord's Midjourney Bot 2023 saw the commercialization of AI (Artificial Intelligence). It has already changed the way some people work and has cost some people their jobs. For medical diagnostics, legal research, writing code and spewing propaganda, AI has already proven itself invaluable. 2024 will see an acceleration of this trend. Discerning what is real, what is written by a human or a bot, will become ever harder.* Machines that think for themselves, make autonomous decisions and even have feelings are already among us. They will become ever more lifelike. But they remain within the realm of ...
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Posted on December 24, 2023
Inventing can be like having a child. Joys and hard work. You have your great idea and have decided to move forward with it. Here’s what to expect: Encouragement and support from friends and strangers.Feelings of optimism and confidence as you think about all of the people who will buy your invention and how much money you’ll make.Fun making design choices on the invention’s look and features.Solicitations from attorneys and invention service companies. And USUALLY… a roller coaster ride of expectations being raised and crushed: Prototype after prototype getting better but still needing improvements.Rejections from the patent office that ...
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Posted on December 08, 2023
You only get one chance to make a first impression. If you rush to the interview with your clothes a mess and arrive sweaty and stressed out, you won't get the job. The same thing is true with a new product. If the product has quality problems, if the packaging design is sloppy, if the instructions are poorly written, it will make a poor impression on potential buyers in two ways. First, if it looks bad, few people will buy it. Second, if the quality is low and it's hard to figure out how to assemble or use, buyers will ...
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Posted on December 03, 2023
As an example of what AI can currently do for inventors, I’m posting examples of an invention created by ChatGPT and illustrated by Discord's Midjourney bot. Squeeze Drive Pro "invented" by Chat GPT. Invention illustration by Discord's Midjourney bot using ChatGPT's description. Bottom line: It’s interesting, but not there yet.For the prompt, I used a simple description of our first product, the SqueezeDriver, a rotary hand powered screwdriver. SqueezeDriver is in the public domain and I’m not worried about AI related issues of inventorship and public disclosure. For now, I would not prompt current AI tools with confidential information.The image ...
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Posted on November 08, 2023
Think about organizing your entire life around the chance to run 100 meters in the Olympics four years from today. Just the chance. Every day you'll train for hours, day after day, for years. Think about all of the good luck you'll need avoiding illness and injury to make it to the starting block, the personal sacrifices.And then you'll have less than 10 seconds to make your dream come true and win gold.Inventing is like that.You have a great idea and can spend years developing it, protecting it, making prototypes and then bringing it to market. Whether it's on ...
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Posted on November 05, 2023
Edwin Moses won 122 consecutive races. I’ve never told anyone before. In 1984, at the Olympics in Los Angeles, in the LA Memorial Coliseum, with a crowd in the stands, I ran 400 meters around the track. Yes, the official games were over and the crowd was leaving. But I ran on the same track on the same day (more or less) as Gold Medal winners Edwin Moses and Carl Lewis… with a pack of photographers who’d been taking pix at the finish line.Working for Newsweek and ABC with photographer Ken Regan, my job at the running and hurdles events ...
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Posted on October 31, 2023
Is Stealing Intellectual Property Part of Apple's DNA?
In 1996 Steve Jobs said: “Picasso had a saying... ‘Good artists copy; great artists steal.’ And we have, you know, always been shameless about stealing great ideas.” A decade earlier, according to my godfather, Jess Rifkind, a key member of the legendary Xerox PARC Research Lab, Jobs ripped off core concepts for what became the Apple Macintosh. Apple's current attitude toward outside innovators is expressed in their unsolicited invention submission policy. In short, if you send an unsolicited idea to Apple, they will claim to own it.
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Posted on October 17, 2023
Theo Jansen's Strandbeest (beach animals) are simply magnificent:- Mike ...
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Posted on October 01, 2023
Promoting your invention requires you to provide content on many different venues. Should you use Chat GPT to write that content for you?Chat GPT does a great job of writing a rough first draft and can inspire you to write something that has the punch needed to break through the massive clutter of online content. But the punch needs to come from you. Use AI for first drafts, not final. Chat GPT and other AI generated content will not deliver the engagement you need to succeed. It lacks the human experience, it lacks the actual experience, that can make the ...
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Posted on September 25, 2023
Inventors regularly ask us about how developed their invention should be when submitting for a Brutally Honest Review (BHR):Do I need to have a provisional patent application (PPA) filed? No. Submissions are covered by our Confidentiality Agreement. A Confidentiality Agreement can be enforced; a PPA can not be.Do I need a prototype? No. We love prototypes. But they can be expensive. One reason for the BHR is to determine if the expense of a prototype is justified.It's just an idea, is that ok?YES! It's great to get professional feedback (and a possible deal offer) at the earliest possible stage. It's ...
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Posted on September 19, 2023
Is Your Invention a Cabbage or a Truffle?Almost every new product has people who will buy it. But what does it cost to harvest them? What does it cost to: Make them aware of your new product and then,Convert them into a buyer?1 and 2 together are the "conversion cost." If the cost is too high, the product is unprofitable, even if there are people who want to buy it. Thinking about conversion cost got me to thinking about cabbages and truffles. Cabbages are grown in neat rows and can be harvested by machines for minimal cost per head of ...
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Posted on September 11, 2023
The question looks simple. But most inventors do a terrible job answering it. As a rule, their answers are too long, too complicated and miss the reason the question is being asked in the first place.Ideally you can summarize the most important aspect of your idea in a short headline with a single image and a caption. After that you can add details with bullet points and text. A short video is even better. SHORT is the key. Beyond introducing the idea of your invention and why it’s special, your answer should vary depending on who is asking the question ...
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Posted on September 10, 2023
Patents are expensive, complicated and always cover far less than you'd like.Short answer: If your invention is successful it will be knocked off and you will want ways of fighting the knockoffs.1. A trademark on your product's name is inexpensive and MUCH easier and less expensive to defend than a patent.2. Copyright (for images, instructions, graphics) is helpful and also inexpensive, but not quite as easy and cheap to defend.3. Design patents protect a product's look. Easy to get, not too expensive, but only helpful if the look is unique.4. Utility patents are expensive to get, complicated, almost always have ...
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Posted on July 19, 2023
"Where's the Beef?"Grilling and BBQ are hot during summer. A hot new(ish) thing this year (beyond the weather) is how we innovate with meat that doesn’t come from animals. BBQ traditionalists may scoff at the idea of grilling with anything other than real meat, but demand is big and growing and who better than people who love real meat to create great substitutes? ...
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Posted on July 19, 2023
The USPTO held two listening sessions earlier this year on the topic of inventions created with AI. There are a lot of thorny questions about who is the inventor and who should own the rights when a human inventor poses a question and AI mines and recombines data to arrive at a novel, nonobvious and useful structure and process for the solution. The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Thaler v. Vidal, 43 F.4th 1207 (Fed. Cir. 2022) held that a patent inventor must be a natural person, but did not address whether inventions made by human beings with the assistance ...
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Posted on July 16, 2023
Cooking is a form of inventing that everyone does.Mom did all of the cooking in our house except for one thing. Most every Sunday morning, Dad would make pecan waffles. He's from Texas and loving waffles and pecans, like loving football, is part of the deal. He made the waffles with an electric waffle iron that had been received as a wedding present. That waffle iron made thin waffles, Waffle House style. Dad used Bisquick and the waffles were very good.Very good. But not great. For the past thirty five years, waffle-loving in my DNA, I've been on a slow ...
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Posted on June 29, 2023
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to review your invention!PLEASE SCHEDULE YOUR ONBOARDING AT THE LINK BELOW:CALENDAR
Please schedule at least two days from today. This will give us time to research prior art and perform an inventicator analysis in advance of our meeting.
Program: BHR GOLDPlease feel free to email us at info@inventioncity.com
Please check your inbox (and spam folder) for a confirmation email from info@inventioncity.com.
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Posted on June 27, 2023
WHAT’S NEW AT INVENTION CITY - JUNE 2023The hot new thing this June continues to be AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the forms of text and image generation. If you haven’t tried them yet, you owe it to yourself to visit:CHAT GPT Is imperfect but amazing at generating text that describes ideas and at answering general questions. There are possible issues with disclosure, so be careful about describing your idea precisely. But if you want to flesh out the concepts surrounding your idea, Chat GPT can be extremely helpful. DALLE-E and MIDJOURNEY Are great tools for creating imaginative images based on ...
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Posted on June 25, 2023
An Avoidable AccidentWhen I ignored a hairline crack in my rudder, it wasn't surprising that it snapped off while sailing when the weather kicked up. I should have known. But here's the thing, prior to the event, I didn't have experts looking over my shoulder, reinforcing the cautions of my inner voice, saying: "The core material used to build your rudder is susceptible to catastrophic failure. If you see a hairline crack, assume it goes all the way through."Kinda like the warning Stockton Rush received about substituting steel with carbon fiber when he built the Titan submersible. Except, in his ...
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Posted on June 15, 2023
One of the Most Successful Kitchen Products of All Time When Cornell Capital bought Instant Brands and merged it with another kitchenware maker, the combined company was valued at more than $2 billion. On Monday, the company declared bankruptcy, weighed down by more than $500 million in debt. How does that happen? Did a wildly successful product become unsuccessful?That's the wrong question. Instant Pot remains a huge success. Any inventor would LOVE to take the ride that inventor-entrepreneur Robert Wang has enjoyed since creating the Instant Pot in 2009. Sales have simply gone flat because the market is saturated and ...
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Posted on June 09, 2023
Whiskey maker Jack Daniels did not like a spoof product, a vinyl chew toy for dogs, free riding on their carefully crafted trademark. In front of the Supreme Court their lawyer argued, "Jack Daniel's appreciates a good joke as much as anyone. But Jack Daniel's likes its customers even more and doesn't want them to be confused or associating its fine whiskey with dog poop." The Supreme Court unanimously agreed with JD, overturned a previous ruling and sent the case back to a lower court for further consideration."A parody must 'conjure up' 'enough of [an] original to make the object ...
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Posted on May 13, 2023
Congratulations to inventors Coty Bogart, Anya Douglas, Michael O'Connell and Chris Hernandez! In the past four months their inventions were submitted to Invention City and declined...But instead of giving up, they proceeded to have surveys conducted of their inventions to find out if there was a target market at a profitable price. Looking at the survey results, Invention City decided there is and offered them licensing deals. The previous "no" became a "yes." A deal doesn't guarantee their inventions will make money, but it does mean that Invention City will spend its own time and money on their inventions to ...
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Posted on April 24, 2023
Just find the right company(ies) for your invention. Then try and find a way to make a presentation.If you look only for "Open Innovation" you're likely to miss the best opportunities.The term "Open Innovation" is thrown around a lot in the invention world. It means that a company is open to working with outside inventors. More specifically, it means a company has SAID that it is open to working with outside inventors. Companies that have open doors commonly make things easy with online submission forms and easy to find contact information. Most all TV product companies have open doors. Some ...
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Posted on April 13, 2023
As of April, 2023, for a single invention, you can spend from $60 to file a provisional patent application in the USA, to $1,000,000+ (over time) to have patents on your invention issue in most of the countries around the worldHere are some examples of current patent costs:Provisional patent application filed by the inventor: If you choose to file a provisional patent application at the USPTO on your own, the filing fee is now $60. The provisional patent app enables you to establish a priority date, but it is not an enforceable patent. Non-provisional (utility) patent application filed by an ...
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Posted on March 14, 2023
Inspired Home Show, Chicago, March 2023Since the beginning of the year I've walked three trade shows: Las Vegas World Market, National Hardware Show and the Inspired Home Show (formerly the Housewares Show). In December I planned on going to none of them. My plans changed and I'm glad they did. The shows were all great, at least for me. Trade shows offer a chance to make new connections, reconnect with old friends and learn what's happening in an industry.I walked away from the three shows with more significant pending deals than I've ever had from shows before. We'll see if ...
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Posted on February 23, 2023
Waterfront property. You research high tide, stake out the property lines and build your house. There's a chance a big wave might hit it. If the house is well built and the foundation is rock, it'll get wet but withstand the wave. If it's weak and built on sand, it'll be washed away.- Mike ...
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Posted on February 17, 2023
You can do a fine initial search on your own by going to google.com/patents and worldwide.espacenet.com. Type in key words starting with the most obvious ones that describe your invention idea. When you find something close, look at the citations and references and keep on drilling down. If you don't find something close, you're looking in the wrong places. Patents are about details and there's always prior art. Also check Alibaba and Amazon for products.Keep in mind the three rules:RULE #1: THERE IS ALWAYS PRIOR ART. The first rule of searching for prior art is that you should always find ...
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Posted on January 29, 2023
For years I've heard that "drug companies extend patents" to keep on charging exorbitant prices for drugs after a patent runs out. It makes no sense. The life of a patent is 20 years from filing date. It can't be extended. Yesterday, the NY Times ran a piece on how AbbieVie, makers of a rheumatoid arthritis drug, "Made $114 Billion by Gaming the U.S. Patent System."The article didn't answer the how directly. It was more concerned about the costs to US taxpayers and to the people who need the drugs. But it did provide enough information to finally figure out ...
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Posted on January 20, 2023
Yesterday I was contacted by an inventor who had paid $2000 for an utterly inadequate provisional patent application. Now, $2000 and even more for a PPA can be reasonable, provided that it's close to being ready for filing as a non-provisional patent, with the invention described in appropriate detail and decent drawings referenced in the specification. In this case, the filing was a legalistic sounding word salad that barely described the invention and unreferenced drawings the inventor had done himself. With regard to establishing priority, the inventor could have filed his own drawings and a one line description with the ...
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Posted on January 15, 2023
Should I Be Doing This?"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." The first steps are easy and fun and cost nothing. You have an idea and spin it in your mind. But once you decide to try and make the idea real, there are real costs with regard to your time, money and focus.Paths diverge depending on your goals, capabilities, assets, personal network and the invention itself. But at the beginning stage, before getting in deep, the question every inventor and entrepreneur should ask and answer is, "should I be doing this at all?"It's human nature ...
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Posted on January 13, 2023
FOUR STRIPES VS THREE PLUS $$$$Thom Browne is a high end fashion designer who likes to use stripes on his creations. Adidas is an athletic wear company that identifies its brand with stripes. Adidas, with a trademark on the use of stripes on footwear and clothing, sued Thom Browne for trademark violation. Yesterday, a jury in Manhattan decided that there was no violation. Here is what the fight was about:I had my own trademark run-in with an athletic wear company. Years ago, with dreams of a surf-wear empire, I filed an intent-to-use trademark for "LA SURF" (I also filed for ...
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Posted on December 31, 2022
AI will be everywhere in 2023.In 2023 AI will become a part of all of us in ways big and small. In schools, teachers will have a hard time distinguishing student written essays from essays written with prompts using Open AI's Chat GPT. Internet searches will become more conversational with written responses to questions rather than a simple list of links. And people who love images, like me, will spend hours upon hours creating and modifying them with AI assistance (and a bit of photoshop).The image above was created using open AI's DALL-E-2 (with a bit of photoshop). My prompt ...
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Posted on November 28, 2022
CAVEAT: I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. I'm someone who's looked at 20,000+ inventions, has overseen 200+ US and international patent filings, has filed dozens of PPAs on my own, has been knocked off multiple times, has been through $5,000,000 patent litigation 1X and $2,000,000 patent litigation 2X, and has licensed inventions to Fortune 500 companies.For 99% (or more) of early stage inventions, there's little reason to spend a lot of time or money on a PPA. It's worth doing, but not something to stress about. The main value of the PPA, for early stage ...
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Posted on November 16, 2022
Kling KONG, the "Swiss Army knife of phone stands" launched on Kickstarter on November 10 and reached 160% of its (modest) goal on the first day. Check it out here: https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...- Mike ...
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Posted on November 04, 2022
The Air Whirl Crisper has officially launched and is now in retail at Walmart, Bed Bath Beyond and elsewhere. It took "only" six years to turn the idea into reality - thanks to the patience and hard work of inventor Bill Stumphauzer, the hard work, persistence and investment of Invention City and the hard work, dedication and even greater investment of AllStar Innovations.Here's Bill talking about his experience with Invention City two years into the project:Video of Bill's original prototype made by ICity for presentation to potential partnersBill tells the story behind the invention:More was spent by I-City and much ...
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Posted on October 10, 2022
Have you ever used a house key to slice open a box? I do it often. That's not an intended use. As the inventor you may think you know how people will use your product, but you don’t really know until you hand it to people and ask them to use it at home or at work. Cycle testing clip of Kling KONG™.Before any serious company starts shipping it will take steps to ensure the product delivers on its claims. The company needs to protect its brand and knows that long term losses from shipping a bad product will far ...
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Posted on September 19, 2022
A new product sometimes eats sales of existing products.I'm not talking about eating executives who say "no" to you, as tempting as that may be. I'm referring to the possibility that sales of your wonderful new invention would replace sales of an existing product. For example, let's say you have a much improved mouse trap that catches mice 100% of the time and costs just pennies more than a conventional mouse trap that fails half the time (we just tried licensing such a product). Why on earth wouldn't a company jump at the chance to license the vastly improved product?Cannibalism ...
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Posted on August 06, 2022
Yesterday I had a long conversation with inventors who had spent $45,000 on their idea and were about to spend another $8,000 on pursuing a patent. The idea itself was laudable. But their odds of making money from it are less than 0.1% (that might be generous). I asked, “have you considered who the customer is, who will actually pay for this invention?” They had not. Never mind that meaningful patent protection is a pipe dream. If you haven’t considered who will actually PAY for your product, then you might as well burn $100 bills in the fireplace. - Mike ...
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Posted on June 13, 2022
Our recent launch of Dream Changer on Indiegogo has failed. It didn’t just merely fail, it really most sincerely failed. Dream Changer is a placebo remote control that helps kids overcome nightmares. It’s a nice looking product with a wonderful back story and was shown to work in a formal field study.In the event, we raised a total of $97 (note the lack of zeros) on day 1 of the campaign and not a dollar more was pledged in the two weeks that followed. That’s despite sending out a formal press release via PR Newswire, reaching out directly to 50+ ...
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Posted on May 31, 2022
Treated book like a product, did Brutally Honest Review and said, "Yes."Dead Tide by Jane MarksAvailable on AmazonA year ago, my daughter Jane was nearing completion of a murder-mystery novel and wanted Brutally Honest feedback to either be crushed and told to give up on writing or encouraged to try and make a career out of it. One of the first things I tell inventors is to get feedback from friends and family. In this case I didn't feel qualified because I don't read woman-oriented murder mysteries. And Jane's mom is too nice. I mentioned this to my friend, Jo ...
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Posted on April 15, 2022
Money is NOT the One Reason.Money is an important byproduct and profits must be available to everyone in the supply chain for an invention to be commercially successful, but money alone does not explain why most inventors invent.If all you care about is money you can make it faster, easier and in far greater quantities by investing in stocks or real estate.The act of creating a new product, of taking an idea in your mind and turning it into something that other people use and pay for, is like medieval alchemy, like turning lead into gold. It's a kind of ...
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Posted on February 10, 2022
"Hand-squeeze powered motorless driver"It is your job as inventor to see that potential partners, investors and customers understand your invention. Make it easy for them to "get it." For product names, sales sheets and web pages this concept is well known. But it applies to patents too.Patent titles are often seen in investor presentations. An easy to understand title can reinforce the message that the patent has value.Patent titles are also seen when competitors search prior art to try and avoid stepping on a patent. A title that accurately describes the invention in commonly used terms will help competitors find ...
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Posted on February 10, 2022
1. Well defined target market.2. Retail price 5X or more of manufactured cost.3. Unique and useful benefits delivered by means of a unique structure or process that can be patent protected. 4. Evidence of proven demand by the target market.5. Working prototype that proves the functions and benefits claimed.6. Safe and manufacturable with current technologies.It's a high bar and your invention doesn't need to jump over all of the points to be successfully licensed. But If you have an invention that covers all of those points, the odds of a successful licensing deal are high. At the very least, Invention ...
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Posted on January 28, 2022
Invention City is pleased to announce the soft launch of the Air Whirl Crisper™:Inventor Bill Stumphauzer submitted his invention to Invention City in the summer of 2016. After multiple failed licensing deals and a failed Kickstarter, Invention City found a home for the product with AllStar Innovations. You can buy it here: https://airwhirlcrisper.com/We appreciate the hard work by AllStar, the designers and engineers who preceded them and the patience of inventor Bill Stumphauzer. Now we hope that the product will achieve the great success it deserves.Mike Marks ...
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Posted on January 11, 2022
Finding the right contact person increases the chances your invention will be seriously considered.The best person to start with at a company is someone in the role of "Product Manager." There are different names for the function at different companies. As a rule, it's someone on the marketing side who is in charge of commercializing similar new products, the person who would, for example, present your invention to Walmart or negotiate with Amazon, once it's developed. Next best are people with titles like VP of Design. Try to avoid engineering (although you may end up there). Sales and marketing people ...
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Posted on October 01, 2021
Seeking end user customers, pitching licensees, pitching retailers and pitching partners/investors to start your own business are very different things. Each one has a different emphasis:1. Customers care about features and benefits and price.2. Licensees want a competitive advantage, ways to increase profits. Patents that cover the lowest cost, best way of making something or cover an innovation that will enable them to expand market share. 3. Retailers want to know why (and how) your product will generate more profit for its allocated space (peg, shelf, counter, floor or web page) than existing/alternative products, that you will be reliable and ...
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Posted on July 09, 2021
You should be. But don't let the worry stop you.Checking for possible infringement issues can get complicated and very expensive. A legal opinion from a lawyer on whether or not your invention violates someone else's patent rights can be (usually is) MORE expensive than getting an issued utility patent!This is an area that's filled with gray areas and many, many unknowns, especially in fields that move quickly like tech and biotech. If it's a hot field, even if you can't find anything to worry about in a search, there's a decent chance someone already has a patent pending (including provisional ...
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Posted on July 02, 2021
You have a brilliant, amazing, life changing invention (or at least one that will reduce frustration a little bit or make life more fun). How do you tell people about it? You have a fraction of a second to grab attention, maybe two seconds to engage someone to start paying attention and maybe 10-30 seconds to hold attention and convert them into action, like buying or giving up an email address. With all of the advances in measuring and following consumer behavior over the past 20 years you'd think that marketing had become easier, that there's an easy formula. I'm ...
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Posted on June 09, 2021
Adventures in Manufacturing InventionsWe just received three quotes for a new product. It's a single piece but uses two different types of plastic, a soft plastic co-molded over a hard plastic. It's small too. I guessed and hoped the unit cost would be approx $0.50 per unit and the mold around $10,000.Quote 1 / USA: Tool = $16,400; unit cost = $2.85Quote 2 / China: Tool = $21,395; unit cost = $2.67Quote 3 / China: Tool = $10,000; unit cost = $0.50The China #3 quote was exactly what I'd hoped for! We've also worked with the factory before and LOVE ...
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Posted on May 11, 2021
Show them the money... or the customers. And always be polite. We recently did a review for an inventor with an idea we thought was cool but we weren't sure about the market and there was prior art all around it. So we said no. He accepted the no gracefully, thanked us and then... The inventor posted a video of himself with his prototype to an interest group on Facebook. Within an hour he got 240 likes and loves, half a dozen gifs of money being thrown at him and ten comments from people saying they'd buy it. He messaged ...
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Posted on April 24, 2021
How to Make Sure a Company Takes Good Care of Your InventionPerformance requirements are hurdles a licensee must clear to keep rights to your invention.You've got a company interested in possibly licensing your invention! That doesn't happen often and you should feel great about reaching this stage. Negotiating a licensing deal began when you chose the company that's now interested. Understanding the company's motivations and how it operates are now critical in successfully reaching a deal. Performance requirements are necessary to ensure that the licensee continues to care about your invention when the enthusiasm of the moment wears off. But ...
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Posted on April 02, 2021
A single invention can be the root of a full tree of related products and a large portfolio of related patents. Here is what that looks like:Two extensive product lines began with a single innovative staple gun. ...
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Posted on March 07, 2021
The Story of the Inventor of of the Bubble Gun, Chattering Teeth and MUCH MORE: https://www.newyorker.com/vide... ...
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Posted on February 20, 2021
Our prototype for inventor Tam lang came out fantastic! It's HOT... but not too hot. It's called Perfect-Sip™. Working on the video and Kickstarter now. Launch will be in a few months. It has a "magic" feature!! ...
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Posted on February 19, 2021
A Quick Licensing Guide for Inventors in a HurryCreate a FAST presentation: 30 second to 1 minute video is ideal and/or single image with headline and 3 bullet points.File a provisional patent application: https://www.inventioncity.com/...Survey the target market (ideally use a competitive product in survey for comparison): https://www.inventioncity.com/...Make a list of target licensees. Best targets are #2 and #3 in the category. They take market share from #1 and are more receptive.Know what you NEED to say yes to a deal before you start. Consider the alternatives and be realistic. Start knocking one door at a time. This builds trust and ...
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Posted on February 06, 2021
My Experience with Prototlabs.We’ve been developing a cool smart phone accessory in conjunction with Snapchat influencer Cyrene Q. Using our own 3D printing machine we put together a few rough prototypes to prove the concept. Now we need a refined functional prototype so that Cyrene can shoot video and help us on the path to launching a successful Kickstarter. 3D printing isn’t refined enough, even more, the 3D printed part isn’t strong enough. Plastic that flows into a mold in a single shot is stronger than plastic that is laid down 25-300 microns at a time. Our part needs strength ...
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Posted on February 04, 2021
Here's what you can do to move your invention forward on a tight budget:1. File a provisional patent application on your own. Here's an outline. Cost: $75 filing fee.2. Create a presentation with 3D images/short video. Find sources on fiverr (short video means 1 minute or less). Cost: $300+3. Do a Facebook survey. Cost: $0 Find a relevant Facebook group. Ask questions to validate that the respondent is a target customer. Then, the most important question to ask is: "Would you buy this product for $______ ?a) Yes. I'd buy it today.b) Probably. I'd buy it in the next week ...
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Posted on January 24, 2021
The Rite Press story is a cautionary tale for inventors.For serious coffee drinkers the french press is recognized as one of the best ways to make coffee. But it has drawbacks: cleaning is unpleasant and coffee grows cold too quickly. Inventor-entrepreneur Sagram Patel solved those drawbacks and launched an improved french press called the Rite Press on Kickstarter in 2018. The project raised over $1 million and became Kickstarter's most successful coffee project of all time. From that pinnacle of success the product fell into ever deeper trenches of failure. There were failures to deliver the product, failures to make ...
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Posted on January 18, 2021
Understanding the reasons will help you decide how to proceed with patents, prototypes and more.To manufacturers and retailers your invention is a box of profit competing with other boxes.Money, creative urge, ego, desire to help others, intellectual challenge and curiosity - inventors develop ideas for all of these reasons and all are valid. But money is the purest reason of all.Money is motivation, success and a common language. However, before going on I need to say that if money is the only goal, there are much better ways to earn it than inventing. The hard fact is that most inventions ...
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Posted on October 31, 2020
The Tofu Master, invented by Lars Rannes and licensed by Invention City is moving toward a Kickstarter next year. The product makes tofu preparation faster, easier and tastier. Intern Emily Williams, a senior at UNC, has been doing a spectacular job creating the website, video, and pre-launch marketing efforts. Check out the project here. ...
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Posted on October 27, 2020
We're starting to build a pre-launch email list list for a Kickstarter for a new type of smartphone tripod called the Woormpod™. Kickstarter should be live next February. Here's a teaser: Sign up for email notifications on the project at https://woormpod.com/ ...
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Posted on September 20, 2020
The Internet Is now the best way to launch a new consumer-oriented invention. It may be the only way. During the past few decades the economics and strategies of launching a new product have radically changed. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed the changes even further to the point that it's now pointless to even try and launch a new consumer product via bricks and mortar distribution. In the pre-Internet stone age, the process of making a new product was hard. 3D printing and CAD design barely existed and China was just beginning to open for business. But ...
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Posted on June 30, 2020
“I hope that before the end of my life that we do have a search-and-rescue robot based on flying snakes."Together with colleagues, Dr. Jake Socha, a professor of biomedical engineering and mechanics at Virginia Tech, recently published a study on how flying snakes fly. It turns out that they flatten themselves, undulate to maintain stability and have an approximate 2:1 glide ratio. If they jump from 30 feet up they can travel 60 feet in distance. Read more here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-020-0935-4Flying snake drones as toys for Christmas 2022? Maybe not. But we can be sure that the Pentagon is looking into ...
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Posted on June 25, 2020
Segway Was Overhyped and Destined to Fail. Current Owner Ninebot Announced It Is Ceasing Production.The Segway personal transporter was introduced just as the dotcom frenzy was topping out. At a time when hype was flowing like Bud Lite at a Super Bowl, the Segway was the most hyped product in the history of hype. Steve Jobs said it would be bigger than the personal computer. Others predicted that cities would be redesigned to accommodate it. Yes, serious people seriously said that cities would be changed to fit Segway. Otherwise smart people failed to note that Segway was twice as wide ...
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Posted on June 22, 2020
When you invent, getting "patent pending" status can be very helpful as a potential deterrent to infringers, an indication of credibility, or as a designation of potential value. Getting "patent pending" status also helps you avoid some of the most costly risks such as losing the right to exclusively protect your invention in foreign countries or, in some cases, even in the United States.Guest Article by Jeff HolmanYou can get "patent pending" status as soon as you file a patent application. And the scope of your "patent pending" status is as broad (or narrow) as the level of detail you ...
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Posted on June 22, 2020
Product Development Professionals Hedge Their Bets on New Products and You Can Too. You can't fully ensure. But there are steps you can take to better the odds. (This is long, but you're new to inventing, well worth reading.) Inventions are high risk investments. In my experience over the past 30 years, the most commercially promising inventions, even with careful vetting, are still, at best, only 50/50 bets. Why? Because there are always evaluation errors and unknown unknowns. 50/50 is a terrible bet if your life savings are on the line. But if you can afford to lose all of ...
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Posted on June 12, 2020
Yesterday I had a call with a team of inventors interested in selling their invention to us. We didn't have a NDA in place so the conversation proceeded in generalities. I wanted a concrete example and asked, "What existing product is similar to your invention? Don't tell me any details about YOUR invention. I don't want to know. Just give me an example of an existing product that's already being sold." "I'm afraid to disclose anything," the inventors answered. "Even the name of a product I can buy today at Wal-Mart?" I asked. Yes, was the answer.I ended the conversation ...
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Posted on May 23, 2020
Making consumers aware of a new product can turn projected profits into losses.Getting a product manufactured and offered for sale has never been easier, thanks to affordable 3D design and Amazon. However, making customers aware of a product and turning a profit has never been harder. Our VertiGrille® offers a fine case study. We went to market on our own after rejecting a deal from a major housewares company. To keep things easy, we decided to sell exclusively on Amazon with Amazon FBA (fulfillment by Amazon). We did some PR, which worked a bit. Tried advertising on Youtube, Facebook, Adwords ...
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Posted on May 16, 2020
Patents can incentivize inventors and they can also block innovation. Wright Brothers at Kitty HawkWould the Wright Brothers have pursued innovations in flight as aggressively as they did without the imperfect promise of patent protection? Probably not - and without their aggressive efforts, the development of the airplane would surely have taken longer. Conversely, would airplanes have developed faster if the Wright Brothers didn't get patents and enforce them? Absolutely. The Wright Brothers patent story is fascinating. The basic principles of flight, such as lift generated by an airfoil, were in the public domain. But until the Wright Brothers came ...
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Posted on April 22, 2020
Everything has a supply chain, even vaccines.April 22, 2020 - Scientists around the world are racing to develop a vaccine to fight COVID-19. Hopefully they will have success soon. Once they have found something promising and after it's been tested and proven, there remains the challenge of manufacturing it in ginormous quantities. The challenges of manufacturing and distributing a vaccine are surprisingly similar to those of manufacturing any new product. Common things sometimes become stumbling blocks and things you never thought to consider can bite you in the butt.As it turns out, a current shortage of sand may slow down ...
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Posted on April 15, 2020
Great product concepts do not succeed on the concept alone. The idea not only needs to function well but also needs to have the right look for its intended audience. No one gets the right design on the first try. That's why independent designers and design firms begin a project by spinning out a wide range of initial concepts. Now imagine you could get ideas from dozens of designers all at the same time? That's the idea behind Cad Crowd's design contests. Design contests are used for all types of projects. Whether you’re looking to launch a new product or ...
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Posted on April 14, 2020
The Formula for Starlite Is Revealed*By Mike MarksLast Sunday morning I left my basement office in a rare state of excitement and headed upstairs. My daughter Jane was at the kitchen table quietly sipping coffee. I slapped the table and whooped, “I’m Indiana Jones, I just found the Holy Grail!” and proceeded to show her a video of a guy on YouTube directing a blazing brazing torch at his fingers for a full twenty seconds. The guy explained how his fingers were singe-protected by a thin layer of material he’d concocted from corn starch, baking soda and Elmer’s glue. The ...
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Posted on March 26, 2020
James Dyson showed us why he is "Sir" James Dyson. In response to a call from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Dyson's team designed a new ventilator in 10 days. His company is now making 15,000 ventilators for the COVID-19 pandemic fight and will donate 5,000 to the international effort.https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/26/tech/dyson-ventilators-coronavirus/index.html ...
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Posted on March 12, 2020
Antiviral and antibacterial solutions for current and future pandemics March 12, 2020 - Many inventors are now considering ways to help fight the current worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 aka coronavirus. The virus itself is a version of the common cold that presents flu like symptoms. It affects older people and those with compromised immune systems far more than the young and is transmitted primarily from people touching an infected surface with their hands and then touching their face, specifically, eyes, nose and mouth. Many things are still unknown, but it seems that the mortality rate may be around 1-2% which ...
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Posted on February 27, 2020
Steps for Getting a Licensing Deal and Making Money From an Invention Idea When You Have No Capital. One of the biggest falsehoods and excuses inventors give for not moving forward with their invention ideas is lack of money. You don't need money. You need a fantastic idea, smarts, hard work and... luck. Here are the steps for taking your idea forward when your pockets are (nearly) empty. Research competitive products, alternative solutions and patent records.Create a rough working prototype to validate the concept.Write a detailed description with drawings.File a provisional patent application.Create a short presentation - ideally a ...
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Posted on February 05, 2020
If you have the money it's easy to get a patent and make a prototype. The big question is how to make people aware of your new invention idea without going bankrupt.Creating and launching a new invention has never been easier. Suppliers can be found online for everything from app creation, industrial design and prototyping to injection molding, metal stamping and more. Warehousing facilities are just a click away. Need money to get started? Kickstarter and Indiegogo are there for you. And once you get your product made you can easily create an Amazon listing to make it available for ...
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Posted on January 28, 2020
Before submitting your invention to Spectrum Brands be sure to read the agreement carefully.In looking for a potential licensee for a kitchen invention I came across Spectrum Brands. They own a wide range of brands in many categories and seemed to be a good fit for one of our inventions. They have a nice welcoming page for inventors that asks for contact information, description of the invention and so on. Since this particular invention is already in production with issued patent and issued trademark I wasn't worried about disclosure or really much of anything. I filled out page one and ...
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Posted on January 25, 2020
Sharing Patents to Fight Patent "Trolls"In June 2014 Tesla announced it was giving away all of its patents for free. Elon Musk explained at the time:"When I started out with my first company, Zip2, I thought patents were a good thing and worked hard to obtain them. And maybe they were good long ago, but too often these days they serve merely to stifle progress, entrench the positions of giant corporations and enrich those in the legal profession, rather than the actual inventors. After Zip2, when I realized that receiving a patent really just meant that you bought a lottery ...
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Posted on January 23, 2020
"They said I could get a patent." A patentability opinion is a legal opinion that considers what is known in the public record to determine whether or not your invention idea has unique features that might qualify for patent protection. The legal answer to whether or not your invention idea can get a patent is almost always yes - provided you offer enough details to distinguish your invention idea. The truth is, you can get a patent on almost anything. With that in mind, here at Invention City, a claim that so and so said you could get a ...
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Posted on January 18, 2020
By 2030 "You" Will Live Forever For three decades I've regularly enjoyed warm flour pillows of sublime glazed perfection from Stan’s Donuts before surfing dawn patrol. On December 30th 2019, Stan's served me a cold, heavy, oily, dishonorable lump of sugared dough. The sun did not rise in my heart and three weeks later I’m still crabby about it. But as I look back on the previous decade, the dud donut from Stan’s is a fine analogy. Cold, dishonorable lumps of sugary stuff are reasonable descriptions of many of the products introduced in the 2010's. Consider this list of the ...
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Posted on November 06, 2019
After hearing her mom complain about the blind spots on her Jeep, 14 year old Alaina Gassler of West Grove, Pennsylvania took it upon herself to fix the problem. She combined a webcam, projector and reflective fabric to make the windshield support pillars effectively invisible. Her invention won the $25,000 Samueli Foundation Prize in the Broadcom Masters national science competition for U.S. middle school students. Read more at CNN. ...
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Posted on October 11, 2019
Maybe $2.5 Billion Wasn't Enough James Dyson built a phenomenal consumer products business starting with a namesake vacuum cleaner. In 2017 he told the world that his company had allocated a budget of $2.5 billion to develop an electric car. Two years later Dyson now says that his team of 523 people succeeded in creating a "fantastic car" but that he can "no longer see a way to make [the car] commercially viable." He's throwing in the wrench and reassigning the team to work in other areas of his business. Read the full story at Wired.com The car business has ...
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Posted on October 02, 2019
Why a Bogus Provisional May Be OK.Let's start with a disclaimer. I am not a patent attorney or agent and am not offering legal advice. The thoughts below are based on my 30+ years of experience as a new product developer and should be considered as my own personal opinions. Some (perhaps many) registered patent attorneys and agents may disagree with what I have to say, but so far, while not endorsing my ideas, not one patent attorney or agent has told me I'm wrong.A provisional patent application (PPA) is a reservation on a real patent and the reservation expires ...
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Posted on September 18, 2019
A Quick Look At New Product DevelopmentGuest post by Kayleigh AlexandraAfter weeks, months, even years of turning a problem over in your head, your cognitive iteration has produced a viable solution. Or perhaps you’ve just woken up one morning to find a pearl of an idea resting unexpectedly in your mind (the creative process doesn’t always conform to formula). Regardless of the preamble, you’ve invented something — something good.Just to confirm, you let it sit for a while, then revisit it with a clear perspective. It still works. You’re suitably convinced that you’re not delusionally backing a crackpot idea, and ...
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Posted on August 06, 2019
In the start-up and inventing worlds we regularly hear that failure is a component to success, but beyond that, the subject is treated like a marinara sauce stain on a white shirt. No one really wants to look at it closely. Except for Rich Clominson. Rich runs a website called Failory.com that explores business and product failures of all kinds. When I heard about Failory (in the midst of a Kickstarter failure of my own) I exclaimed, "well, if failures are what he wants, I have a bucket load!" So I got in touch with Rich and he asked me ...
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Posted on August 04, 2019
At the beginning of this millennium the best and brightest investors and tech observers told us that the Segway scooter was going to be the greatest, most civilization changing invention since the airplane. To anyone with common sense it was obvious that a Segway was too wide and too fast for sidewalks and also too wide for a bike lane. It also cost as much as a decent used car without the all-weather capability, carrying capacity or travel range. "Never mind," said Segway proselytizers, "cities will be redesigned to accommodate it." Let me repeat that. Intelligent people actually said that ...
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Posted on April 15, 2019
Invention City is pleased to announce that inventor Adam Courville's yet-to-be-named oil well maintenance tool recently passed a critical pressure test. Adam's invention is an improvement upon a device commonly used in down hole operations and will save time and money. Adam is now confirming that the prototype did not deform under pressure; once that is confirmed, field testing will begin. ...
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Posted on March 26, 2019
ABSOLUTELY ATTEND AT A TRADE SHOW. But if you show your invention, do it right.Trade shows are places where people active in an industry get together to learn things and find opportunities for profit. If you are even half way serious about your invention you should absolutely make the effort to attend a leading trade show that is relevant for your idea. However, with one exception, you should only attend as a trade guest and not as an exhibitor. The exception is when you are launching a business and want general feedback and need help from sales representatives, contract manufacturers ...
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Posted on February 02, 2019
Does the Imagine Dragons Song Offer Good Advice for Inventors? The refrain is a message contained in every Tony Robbins motivational speech. It could be, probably is, what the Patriots will be playing in their locker room before tomorrow's Super Bowl. If it had been around in 1944 it would surely have been at the top of General Eisenhower's playlist for the Allied troops hitting the beaches of Normandy to roll back and ultimately defeat Nazi Germany. Imagine Dragons' "Whatever it Takes" functions as a corporate/sports/military get-pumped-up anthem even as it is actually a not-totally-in-your-face pledge to God. With strong ...
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Posted on January 20, 2019
In a ruling that defies common sense, the European Union Intellectual Property Office ruled last Tuesday that McDonald's had not proven genuine use of the trademark "Big Mac" and revoked the company's rights to it. This decision comes out of a dispute between the American mega-corporation with 36,899 restaurants worldwide and an Ireland based fast food chain with 106 restaurants called Supermac's. This may sound like an uplifting David vs Goliath story, but it's an absurdity contrary to what should be the rule of law. The background to the ruling makes more sense. Supermac's claims that McDonald's was engaged ...
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Posted on January 12, 2019
The Consumer Electronics Show has long been a place where one expects to learn about surprising and inspiring new products. In recent years the show has become more mundane and the new products introduced have had the kinds of improvements more typical of the National Hardware Show. "Check out this new widget in a fluorescent color!" Reading reports from this year's show it seems like the trend of somewhat-interesting-but-not-really-inspired new product introductions has continued. With that in mind, here are three that cut through the clutter: Actually Tasty Vegan Hamburger - Impossible Burger 2.0 is a second-generation version of a ...
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Posted on January 04, 2019
SyrCap ABG™ is a combination safety syringe and capillary tube for arterial blood gas testing. It saves time and space. A non-provisional utility patent is pending. Inventor is seeking a licensing deal with help from Invention City. ...
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Posted on January 02, 2019
January 2, 2019 - At the end of 1811, as the industrial revolution was getting under way, groups of craftsmen being displaced by new technology went into factories and destroyed machines that were making their skills obsolete. They were known as Luddites.The British government subdued them with imprisonment, execution and transportation to the forlorn continent of Australia. Technology won and common people came to enjoy the benefits of low cost manufactured goods. Progress was a good thing, but it’s hard to not feel sympathy for the Luddites. Two centuries later technology continues to disrupt current lives with promises of ...
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Posted on December 09, 2018
Drones are cool. They enable phenomenal photographs and video of so many things. Who doesn't love them. Among others, wedge tailed eagles in Australia. That's who:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ma... ...
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Posted on December 03, 2018
Patents are complicated, aggravating, annoying, expensive, and often ineffective. You do not need one to make and sell a product. You do not even need one to collect royalties in some cases. But if you are an inventor and you have a great product concept that can sell for many years, having a strong patent is essential. Below is a video with the stories of three patents and why they were worth having; the stories can now be told because the patents have expired. The patents referred to concern hand tools, but the basic concepts can be applied to patents ...
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Posted on November 29, 2018
Secret new product coming soon. It will help children sleep better at night. We're quietly excited about it. Shhhh.
Photo by Mathias Krumbholz. ...
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Posted on November 28, 2018
The Dragway™ attaches to the bottom of a snow plow assembly to transform it into an effective grading attachment. Invented by Eric Louwers and available for license. Contact mike@inventioncity.com for more information.
...
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Posted on November 25, 2018
Your first step to license or sell a new product idea should be a short video that explains features and benefits.A short explainer video will open the doors to selling your product better than a sales sheet, better than a website, even better than a face to face meeting. Why? Because more people will pay more attention to a short video than any other communication method and they can easily share the video to get buy-in from other team members and advisers.The video must get straight to the point and should ideally be no more than 1 minute long, up ...
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Posted on November 14, 2018
Before spending a lot of time and money on any invention idea, you should take steps to confirm that the idea has a likelihood of commercial success. That means gaining an understanding of the market and doing online research of competitive and alternative products and methods, including searches at http://google.com/patents . You could then use Invention City's Inventicator for free to put your findings through an organized evaluation process. You might also choose to have Invention City do a Brutally Honest Review to get a third party perspective. What you learn from prior art research and get from other feedback ...
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Posted on November 12, 2018
New product coming soon from Invention City: ...
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Posted on November 11, 2018
Not Everything You Read on the Internet is Accurate or True - You Already Know That, But... Invention scams are in the news again and inventors looking for ways to avoid being scammed may run across websites giving them advice on how to avoid them. Some of the advice is good and some is not. The first thing to ask yourself when reading anyone's advice is, who is the person giving me this advice? What have they done that makes them credible and what is their angle? Invention City is very transparent about who we are and what we do ...
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Posted on November 09, 2018
The sleazy invention promotion company, World Patent Marketing, is once again in the news. I last wrote about them in July 2017, after they had been defenestrated by the FTC, and am pleased to note that the company has not been resurrected. WPM was uniquely evil in their success at scamming inventors out of tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars and delivering nothing of commensurate value in return. Inventors seeking help with their inventions should be careful in choosing a development and commercialization partner. Here is a helpful article. ...
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Posted on November 08, 2018
Understanding how to value a bet can help in making better decisions about when to press ahead with an invention and when to walk away. A lot of guessing is involved: How big is the market?What percentage of the market might actually be penetrated?How likely is that to happen? There's no way to know for sure. But even with very rough guesses it helps to have a framework for thinking through whether or not an invention bet makes sense. Invention City founder Mike Marks explains: Why did we think that 0.1% odds of success rather than 50% or 10% or ...
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Posted on November 06, 2018
Inventor Speaks About His Experience Two Years After Signing A Deal Invention City said "yes" to Bill S. and licensed his invention two years ago. The project moved ahead quickly and within 18 months Invention City developed a final design, built prototypes, filed for patents and did a deal with a TV marketing company. The TV company made and tested a well produced 2 minute spot. Unfortunately the spot didn't work, even after re-edits. Invention City and its partners have paid an estimated $235,000+ on Bill's invention to date. How much has Bill paid? Just $185 for a Brutally Honest ...
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Posted on November 02, 2018
Online sales are powered by keyword searches. If your invention idea is not expressed in the keywords people are actually using, no one will ever find it. VertiGrille™ universal rib and chicken rack does the job of 10 grilling accessories When we developed the VertiGrille™ we thought that the primary selling feature was expanding grill, oven and smoker space. We spent a lot of time trying to come up with a way to communicate that idea quickly and eventually settled on the tag line, "Grill in 3D. Cook 3X More." It's a fine tag line and has the benefit of ...
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Posted on October 27, 2018
Reviews of Invention City
Verified reviews of Invention City at Better Business Bureau (A+ Rated)Video review by Inventor Bill S:
Video Review by Inventor John Martinez:
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Posted on October 12, 2018
Boston Dynamics has been improving the capabilities of its humanoid robot named Atlas. Atlas now does parkour:
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Posted on October 07, 2018
Does living require breathing, having a beating heart and firing brain synapses? Roy Orbison's body passed from the world of the living and into the realm of the dead thirty years ago. But his presence in music remained very much alive. Now, a holographic Roy Orbison is giving concerts. Read more at the LA Times. Will his digital embodiment next be endowed with artificial intelligence and an android body, will the next incarnation of Roy Orbison be a replicant? Mark these words. The next Facebooks and Googles will be businesses that animate digital personal profiles with artificial intelligence and ...
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Posted on September 21, 2018
How to hedge your invention bets and minimize the risk of losing a lot of money Inventing is a great way to spend a lot of time and money with the guaranteed result, if you spend enough, of having some pretty pictures, a prototype, maybe some production samples and your name on a patent application or maybe even an issued patent. But making a profit is hard and inventing is best considered as a form of gambling. The guys and gals who count cards in black jack, know odds and can bluff at poker, can make a living as professional ...
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Posted on August 18, 2018
Brutally Honest versus Guaranteed Good News There are two good reasons to do a survey with your invention. One is to learn for yourself what people think about your idea - get suggestions for improvements and determine if enough people will buy it at a profitable price to make further investment of time and money worthwhile. The second good reason is to offer proof of market potential to partners and investors. In both cases it is important that your survey accurately reflects market realities. A survey done for good reasons does not prejudice answers with leading questions; it informs respondents ...
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Posted on June 04, 2018
When inventors submit their inventions for a Brutally Honest Review well tell them to expect to hear "no" and to benefit from learning why we say "no" along with suggestions on next steps. Beyond helping inventors help themselves, the reason we provide the Brutally Honest Review service is to find inventions we think are good bets for licensing and investment. Commercializing great ideas is how we make our real money.The YES inventions cross a wide range of commerce, technologies and industries. Click below to see some examples:
Examples of YES. ...
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Posted on May 28, 2018
Worried about robots taking over the world? Fears of Terminator tormenting your dreams? The future doesn't need John Connor. It just needs a healthy supply of bananas. See the action at the 1:29 mark. Am I imagining that the robot looks a bit embarrassed as it slowly gets back to its feet?
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Posted on May 23, 2018
Ossic X: Kickstarter for 3D Audio Headphones Raises $2.7 Million But Fails to Deliver the Goods. May 22, 2018 - The backers are understandably angry. They each ponied up $200+ for a pair of super cool headphones that most will never see. You can view the campaign here. Was this a scam or an unfortunate confluence of bad luck, poor timing, inexperience, and miscalculation? I don't think it was a scam. The company did deliver a few units and just getting those units out the door cost far more than the amount raised by the Kickstarter. Ossic says it had ...
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Posted on May 15, 2018
Free patent help is available for low income inventors. Patent filings require attention to many details.A bad word choice or even a misplaced comma can change the meaning of a patent claim and render it worthless. You can lose your rights entirely if you miss a filing date; failure to properly disclose prior art can result in your patent being declared invalid. There are dozens upon dozens of ways to screw things up. That's why paying a professional makes sense. But what do you do if you can't afford one?The US Patent and Trademark Office offers two programs for inventors ...
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Posted on April 28, 2018
Do We Really Want AI Everywhere? My biggest concern for the future isn't politics or the environment, it's technology, specifically, the accelerating integration and connection of everything in the world in conjunction with artificial intelligence. Below is a TED Talk by Maurice Conti on intuitive AI, artificial intelligence that thinks and "feels" more like Captain Kirk than Mr. Spock. Cool stuff, but... Artificial Intelligence seems to be accelerating humanity toward something like singularity, the point at which civilization as we know it radically changes and the way we relate to each other and the world is so profoundly different that ...
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Posted on April 10, 2018
Three and a half years ago Invention City helped inventor Ali Nawaz launch his Image Lock invention on Kickstarter. Ali continues to press ahead with his invention and is making steady progress.
Last summer he got it onto the Today Show:
And now he's selling a great looking new version on Amazon (Prime).
Keep it up Ali. You're doing great! ...
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Posted on April 03, 2018
Want to patent something? Add this one feature and you can get a patent on almost any idea you can think of - even ideas that are well known and products that already exist. (Satire... but you could actually do this). by Mike MarksInvention City Founder and President NOTE: The following post makes a serious point but is not intended as serious advice. It's intended to further understanding of patents and to help inventors spend their money wisely. Not all patents are created equal. Are you stressed about getting a patent? There's no need to worry. The easy method I'll ...
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Posted on March 22, 2018
Earlier this week a self-driving Volvo XC-90 being tested by Uber killed Elaine Herzberg who was walking her bike across a street in Tempe Arizona. Ms. Herzberg was crossing between intersections in an area where the presence of a pedestrian or bike or any kind of crossing traffic is unexpected. She was crossing at night wearing a black jacket, blue jeans and white shoes. A human safety driver was in the driver's seat, but wasn't looking at the road when the accident happened. It should also be said that even if she had been looking she might have hit Ms ...
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Posted on February 04, 2018
Invention City Developed VertiGrille™ and Will Now Be Making and Selling It Too. Invention City is in the process of launching a fantastic new product called VertiGrille™. It came about when Dan Fulford's sons showed him a bent up fireplace grate from Wal-Mart used to cook hot dogs by a campfire. Dan saw potential in the idea, spoke to our lead inventor Joel Marks and voila, a new product concept was born. The premise behind VertiGrille™ is simple and obvious. Putting food on vertical skewers enables a grill, oven, bbq or smoker to cook more food than a horizontal orientation ...
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Posted on January 27, 2018
Is it time to abandon Kickstarter and Indiegogo? For nearly a decade, the irresistible promise of funds in advance has driven entrepreneurs and artists to Kickstarter and Indiegogo. I've done three Kickstarters and found the process to be a fantastic way to focus: it's like launching a business with everything running at such speed that what typically takes place over two to three years is compressed into two to three months. Now, as Invention City is planning to launch 6 new products itself, I'm questioning whether or not Kickstarter/Indiegogo is the right way to go. Consider that to succeed on ...
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Posted on January 14, 2018
Four Noteworthy New Products at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show. We’ve waded through the writings and musings of tech editors from around the world to narrow down to this list of four interesting products that were presented at this year's CES in Las Vegas. Rethinking TransportationToyota has come up with a new concept for an electric transportation module. It’s a self-driving rectangular box on wheels that can be configured to serve as a truck, mini bus, shop, movable office, hotel room, anything you can think of. The exterior sides of the e-Palette are pixelized and can display branding, news, advertising ...
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Posted on January 10, 2018
Two years ago Invention City had the pleasure and opportunity of working with inventor Reza Khadem on his unique folding puzzle toy called the REZQUARE™. We had high hopes for it and thought it would be a fantastic promotional item for many different types of businesses. Unfortunately, after honest effort, we couldn't get big companies interested and handed the project back to Reza. Going forward on his own he had the REZQUARE™ manufactured and is now selling it on Amazon. We hope he has huge success! The puzzle is a lot of fun and is great for traveling.Get it on ...
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Posted on December 30, 2017
December 30, 2017 - Christmas has come and gone and my inner Scrooge has been let out of the closet to consider Time Magazine's list of the Best 25 Inventions of 2017. With an eye as hard and cold as the weather forecast for tomorrow night's New Year's Eve in New England, I look at that list and see bupkis. Nothing. Well, that's not totally true; the e-sight glasses for the legally blind look genuinely amazing and the Vicis Zero1 helmet may save the game of football. But a do-nothing robot, low cost Tesla and Stevia-sweetened ice cream, to name ...
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Posted on November 29, 2017
Will Cars Issue Speeding Tickets to Themselves? November 29, 2017 - I'm one of those guys who drives at least 10 mph over the posted speed limit whenever it's safe and I can get away with it. On Route 3, heading north past Plymouth into Boston, the enforced speed limit is 80; on that stretch of road, where the posted signs say "60 MPH," no patrolman tickets me and some cars pass me by, if I motor at 33% over the line. It's not so much about getting to my destination quickly as it is about going a bit faster ...
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Posted on November 18, 2017
When you pay SurveyMonkey for responses are the survey takers actually reading the questions and considering their answers? Gathering useful data from a survey requires two things, a well designed survey and an appropriate target audience. SurveyMonkey provides both: a great platform and paid access to target audiences that will answer the questions your survey poses. The company monitors how their audiences respond to your survey and will suggest changes to a survey's design and targeting to help insure its performance. But even with a great platform and A+ customer service (we know this from our own experience), the question ...
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Posted on November 13, 2017
Most success comes after repeated failure. For that reason it's important for us to fail in such ways that we can fail again and again and again, until, eventually, success is achieved. We start with a flash of inspiration, an itch we need to scratch, a problem to be solved, but our first steps in doing something are usually in the wrong direction and always can be improved upon. In the inventing of his vacuum cleaner Sir James Dyson says he built 5,127 failed prototypes over 15 years, roughly one prototype per day, for a decade and a half. That's ...
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Posted on October 07, 2017
If you're selling your invention directly yourself or running a crowd funding project on Kickstarter or Indiegogo, you need to find cost effective ways to get prospective buyers and backers to check it out. With a great story and the right circle of friends you can do a lot for free on social media and via press releases and outreach. After you've done that and especially if you don't have social media resources to draw upon, paid advertising should be a part of your promotion plan. With a budget of millions you could advertise on network TV and millions of ...
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Posted on August 12, 2017
Peter asked us a question familiar to all inventors: "My invention does not have a lot of hidden secrets. If I tell people what it is, most people in this industry would be able to go away and figure out how to do it themselves. I have taken out a provisional application for a patent on it. If the companies I approach are not prepared to sign an NDA which helps to protect me from them stealing my idea, what can I tell them in the initial approach?" We call this the Catch-22 of inventing and have an article that ...
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Posted on July 25, 2017
The innovation lab area at the National Retail Foundation's 2018 NRF Big Show provides a unique platform where innovators can introduce their new product lines to retail purchasing industry influencers and product development experts. The Innovation Lab will consist of different areas focusing on consumer products and technologies. NRF will be showcasing innovators/Inventors in a 30 booth section of the Lab that will be highlighted in a high traffic area. There will be 500-600 media outlets represented at the event that will be sent press releases long before the event occurs along with the opportunity for in person meetings. If ...
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Posted on July 14, 2017
RATED A+ BY BBB INVENTION CITY HELP Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission put the kibosh on World Patent Marketing (WPM), an invention promotion company that rose from out of nowhere in 2014 to become one of the most hyped invention companies on the Internet. WPM is said to have defrauded inventors out of more than $10 million with promises of patents, licensing, manufacturing, and distribution agreements. None of the inventors WPM worked with made money and many ended up in debt or losing their life savings. I first became aware of WPM when one of their clients ...
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Posted on June 20, 2017
A provisional patent application (PPA) offers a low cost way to reserve protection of an invention idea for one year. With a provisional patent application in place you can say "patent pending" and maintain your claim of patent priority when presenting your invention idea to investors, designers, manufacturers and possible licensees. With respect to United States law, a provisional patent application can be filed by a citizen of any country. However, some countries, like China, require inventors to obtain a foreign filing license for all inventions completed in their country before seeking patent protection elsewhere.KEY POINTS:A PPA is not reviewed ...
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Posted on May 16, 2017
Putting a Healthy Divide Between Inventors and Managers by Scott KeeleyKeeleyDeAngelo.com Karen James is a typical software developer: focused, methodical, binary. She is also inventive. She can envision a solution to a problem via lines of code. In the early 90s Karen wrote a software application that medical staff could use to keep track of patients and manage the back office. This was before electronic health records was a thing, and forward-thinking practices were steadily purchasing it. As business increased, Karen hired a team of coders, and soon found herself heading a 50-person shop. The coder had become a CEO ...
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Posted on April 30, 2017
Elon Musk is setting the bar for visionary entrepreneurship even higher with a new venture called Neuralink. The new company seeks to do nothing more than implant chips into human brains so that they can merge with computers. Read the story here.
The Singularity comes one step closer.
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Posted on April 26, 2017
Inventors and investors can use the Inventicator™ for free to determine the odds of their new products succeeding while not disclosing confidential information. The Inventicator™ is a professional invention evaluation tool April 26, 2017 Boston, MA - Inventors and investors can now evaluate new product and service ideas online for free with the Inventicator™, a professional invention evaluation tool developed by Invention City®. The Inventicator™ provides a rigorous process for estimating an invention's potential for commercial success, without disclosure of confidential information. Users answer questions about an invention’s attributes by clicking on check boxes. The answers are weighted scored and ...
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Posted on April 12, 2017
Cardinals, blue jays, black-capped chickadees and many other birds are regular visitors to the bird feeder at my home. So are squirrels and raccoons. Left to their own devices the fuzzy critters eat more than their fair share and crowd out the feathered ones. Bird feeder designers try all kinds of clever mechanisms to stop them, but the furry fiends are highly motivated, dextrous and smart. The last straw was when I saw a raccoon sitting buddha-style inside the bird feeder, the top having been ripped off. He was happily shoving handfuls of black sunflower seeds into his mouth. I ...
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Posted on April 07, 2017
A Classic Invention Rejection Letter We just received a reply on two outstanding inventions we presented to a major US company for licensing consideration. Both inventions are engineered and ready for production. One has issued US and Chinese utility patents. The other has US, Chinese and European patents pending. Both have working prototypes that look like finished products. Target users love them. And they fit perfectly into existing product lines of the company we pitched. The answer was "no" and offered nothing useful by way of explanation. But at least it was a clear no. That's something to be thankful ...
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Posted on April 04, 2017
Invention City is looking for great invention ideas to license and will consider your invention for FREE. If we say "yes" we'll offer you a deal that costs you $0 out of pocket (you are not obligated to accept our offer). Really. What's the Catch? There are three:1. We offer deals to only about 1% of the submissions we receive.2. You have to do homework (see below).3. In a free submission we do not explain our decision or give advice. If you want advice and a consultation with Dan or Mike, please sign up for our Brutally Honest Review ...
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Posted on March 15, 2017
Frankenchicken?A new company in the San Francisco Bay Area wants a piece of the $200 billion a year Americans spend on meat. The company, confusingly named Memphis Meats, says it has successfully developed the world’s first chicken strip grown from self-reproducing cells. It will be years before these strips appear at your local KFC or Chick-fil-A, but a few lucky testers have had a chance to taste them. The verdict: "tastes like chicken." Read the full story at WSJ.com ...
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Posted on March 09, 2017
Invention services are not like Big Macs It is ridiculously hard for inventors to find cost information on the various steps they will likely take in developing, protecting and commercializing an invention idea if they go forward on their own. Prices and timeline vary because inventions differ in complexity. But it is possible to give an example. Following is a rough estimate for the costs and time of taking a simple new invention concept from idea stage, through drawings, patents, prototypes, pilot production, licensing and manufacturing using third party providers. Invention services are not like Big Macs. The quality of ...
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Posted on March 08, 2017
The ability to move things with thoughts is no longer science fiction. Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab have created a system where humans can guide robots with their brainwaves. Read more at WBUR.
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Posted on March 04, 2017
One week ago, while spending a long weekend in the Berkshires (western Massachusetts) with my wife and daughters, we had breakfast at the Haven restaurant in Lenox. It's a pricey, yuppified, country-style, food joint that owes its existence to New Yorkers who frequently visit the area. The eggs and potatoes and bacon and coffee were excellent, but not any more enjoyable to my palate than what I get in a decent diner. However, the pancakes were something special and raised the bar in my quest to achieve the perfect pancake at home. Before getting to details, I want to put ...
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Posted on February 24, 2017
Dan and I will be attending the International Housewares Show in Chicago on Sunday and Monday March 19-20, 2017. We'll be presenting potential licensees some of the housewares-oriented inventions we've licensed in the past few months and can take on a few more. If you have a great invention idea that's appropriate for the Home and Housewares Category, this could be a great opportunity. Beyond the Housewares Show we'll also be running a Direct Response TV test for one of the best new products we've ever seen this coming spring. This new product could inspire an entirely new category of ...
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Posted on February 08, 2017
Last December an Amazon drone made its first delivery of an Amazon Fire TV and a bag of popcorn in Cambridgeshire England. It took 13 minutes from order to delivery (see a video of the event below). It seems that Amazon's plan for a fully deployed system will involve high altitude blimps serving as mother ships with packages that are then delivered by drones. A drone will be loaded with a customer's order at the blimp and then drop and glide with gravity before powering up and making delivery to the specified location. Amazon received US patent #9,305,280 on this ...
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Posted on February 08, 2017
What makes Invention City different? Rated A+ by BBB with great reviews from real people.Decades of real inventing experience.Revenue sharing.Brutally Honest Review starting at $185 and no other fees if we license your invention. Free submission option. Some companies reel inventors into expensive development programs with the bait of a free invention evaluation or "inventor kit". Because those companies make money from service fees that can range to $10,000 and more, they have no incentive to tell inventors hard truths. Invention City does things differently. We offer a Brutally Honest Invention Review for a one time fee starting at ...
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Posted on January 26, 2017
Here are some of the unsolicited emails Invention City has received in the past year after giving NEGATIVE reviews: January 25, 2017"Thank you for you and your teams time Dan. I have learned a great deal on how to proceed in the future. I now have more information and a better understanding of how to proceed before I ask you for another review in the future. Thank you for helping me save money. God Bless." - C.J. Walton September 12, 2016"Hi Mike -Thanks for your review, effort and feedback. You found a lot of stuff that I missed! I will ...
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Posted on January 17, 2017
Submit your invention for a possible licensing deal here. It happened again this morning. We received an email from an inventor we'd offered a deal to last year. Here's what it said: "Dan-surprise! A blast from the past. We spoke last March about marketing our invention, the _______________. You took our prototype to the housewares convention to show it off. When you returned you said there was only interest in a ____________version. Since almost a year has past, and with other developments, possible to restart that process? Original proposal still apply? Let me know-thanks!" What the inventor doesn't seem to ...
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Posted on January 16, 2017
Inventors often ask how long it takes to turn an invention idea into a real product and begin making money. Of course it depends on the complexity of the product, the skills of the product developer, distribution channels, marketing, money and luck. Below is what the development process looked like for Joel Marks, a mechanically brilliant but totally inexperienced inventor working on his own with a limited budget. The product is the SqueezeDriver® rotary screwdriver. You can read about its (lack of) commercial success here. As you can see, the first prototype took just three days. Turning it into a ...
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Posted on January 16, 2017
Kickstarter is a great way to launch a new product idea, but it's not the best way to raise money.Kickstarter Basics:You have a great new product idea and have heard that crowdfunding on a platform like Kickstarter is the way to go. In our experience it can be fantastic. But most of the time it fails to meet expectations. The reason is that launching on Kickstarter is pretty much the same as starting a new business and needs to be approached in the same manner. There is no shortcut to success. And to have a big success on Kickstarter you ...
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Posted on December 24, 2016
Apple says Nokia is partnered with "patent trolls." Nokia was one of the creators of the cell phone industry but its once booming business in making and selling devices was washed away by the incoming tide of smart phones, Apple's i-phone most of all. Meanwhile, Apple's hottest new product utilized dozens of Nokia patents. In 2011 a first round of patent litigation between the companies was settled with a 5-year royalty deal worth some $720 million. That deal ends this coming December 31st and Nokia wants to insure that income from royalties continues. Thus, earlier this week, Nokia filed a ...
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Posted on November 25, 2016
As artificial intelligence and robotics advance, human questions of morality have begun to arise. Consider self-driving cars. When a car driving itself faces an unexpected scenario, like a child chasing a ball into the road, it's easy to agree that the car should should automatically stop or move to avoid causing harm. But what if the situation presents only two bad options? What if the brakes fail and the car must choose between continuing straight ahead and killing the boy or veering into a cement truck and killing the driver? How should the car choose? As machines take on more ...
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Posted on November 25, 2016
How to Find an Honest Invention Company Inventors search Google and Bing to find help in making inventions a reality. Some want to control the process as much as possible and look for specific help with patents, prototypes and manufacturing. Others want one-stop shopping, they seek a company who will take their undeveloped idea and turn it into a successful product that pays royalties or buy it outright (extremely unlikely). Natural fears about having brilliant ideas stolen are amplified by stories about invention company rip-offs and scams. How does an inventor make an informed choice? The reputation of the ...
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Posted on November 18, 2016
Invention City's program for helping clients works opposite everyone else in the industry. If you've been through our site you know that we look at inventions as prospective investors and mostly say "no". We explain the no and give suggestions on next steps. Our Brutally Honest Review process evolved from our own experience with our own inventions. We know that most inventions fail, even great ones. However, as inventors and entrepreneurs we also understand that passion and perseverance can sometimes win the day. We never say never. Here is an email I just received from a former client we said ...
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Posted on October 16, 2016
"Really Bad Chess" Changes the Game When I was in my early teens my fellow nerd best friend David and I would regularly play chess games to the 1812 Overture. I usually won in those early games and it got to the point where I would be declaring check mate as the canons were going off at the end of the piece. Victory was mine! Then David read some chess books and began kicking my butt. Sicilian Defense. King's Gambit. He eventually became a ranked player and it got to the point where the only way I could play him ...
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Posted on October 08, 2016
Is it possible to make money quickly by selling or licensing an invention idea? Only under a lucky alignment of circumstances. IF you have an invention that solves a problem that a company is actively seeking to solve AND you can find that particular company AND that company is open to innovation from outside of the organization AND you have a prototype that can be evaluated then, yes, it is possible to see money in the form of a royalty advance or a buyout once a deal is negotiated and signed. There's a small chance the process could be completed ...
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Posted on September 12, 2016
The United States Patent and Trademark Office patent search engine is a great resource for anyone developing or utilizing technology. However, there is a serious problem with the USPTO patent search database. Contact information for inventors and patent assignees often becomes out of date after a patent has been issued, so it is difficult to contact inventors if you want to work with them. If manufacturers seeking patented technology are unable to reach the patent owner or inventor, then patents act as a barrier to commercialization of the technology they protect. This problem could be alleviated by including optional email ...
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Posted on September 09, 2016
Some decades ago the luggage brand American Tourister ran television ads that showed humans dressed as gorillas beating up on suitcases. The message was simple: our products are tough. Times change but the message of product toughness is timeless.
Today anyone who wants to promote their product as tough can submit it to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Montana where their product can be tested by real grizzly bears. See for yourself:
- Mike Marks ...
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Posted on September 05, 2016
Once you file an application that gives your invention a priority date, be it a provisional, non-provisional, PCT or other application, a clock starts ticking and you need to make decisions about where, what and when you might file additional applications. In some cases you will want to establish a priority date and then delay additional expenses for as long as possible. In other cases you may want to launch a product immediately and have some sort of protection in place ASAP. One thing that's especially important to consider is international patent protection. There is no such thing as a ...
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Posted on September 05, 2016
A story in the NYTimes about sailboat drones caught my eye this morning. The boats can gather all kinds of ocean related data regarding things like the eating habits of seals, the presence of sharks, sea surface temperatures, water salinity and so on. Measuring 15' from stem to stern they have 20' tall masts and are designed to withstand tropical storm conditions. All very cool as you can see below: <span id="selection-marker-1" class="redactor-selection-marker"></span> Loitering at the sailboat drone video after it ended, YouTube began playing other videos it thought I'd find interesting. This led to videos showing a robotic donkey ...
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Posted on August 12, 2016
When an invention changes lives it's a big deal and Elias Howe's sewing machine is a great example. The sewing machine did more than enable faster sewing. It changed the way people lived and enabled common people to have clothes that fit as well as those of the rich. It also started the ready-to-wear fashion industry we know today. Often people assume that labor saving automation reduces employment and hurts the economy. Here's a short essay by the American Enterprise Institute that explains how the sewing machine enhanced lives and created new jobs. ...
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Posted on August 05, 2016
Artificial Neurons Becoming a Meatspace Reality The distance between physical and virtual realities is diminishing ever faster. In 2005 Futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted that many people living on earth today would, in their lifetimes, see a merging of humans and computers and the reality of human life on earth would fundamentally change in an event called the Singularity.That event has come one step closer with the development of artificial neurons that mimic the neurons in our brains. On August 3rd, a group of researchers led by Evangelos Eleftheriou at IBM’s research laboratory in Zurich announced that they had built a ...
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Posted on July 20, 2016
A few days ago I was speaking with our lead inventor Joel Marks (my brother) about finding great invention ideas and said, "All successful inventions have a bit of magic, how do we identify that?" Joel replied, "Magic comes from increased efficiency." Joel speaks with the precision of an engineer because he is one. When he uses the word efficiency he means this: ef·fi·cien·cyəˈfiSHənsē/nountechnical the ratio of the useful work performed by a machine or in a process to the total energy expended or heat taken in. I tried to come up with examples where there is magic without improved ...
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Posted on July 19, 2016
Quirky Has Either The Worst or Second Worst Disclosure Agreement I've Ever Read. Maybe Even Worse than Apple (and that's saying something). Seven years ago a 23 year old entrepreneur named Ben Kaufman founded a community inventing platform called Quirky. At Quirky.com inventors could contribute ideas and others (with critical help from Quirky's staff) could help turn some of them into commercial products. Points were awarded to people who influenced the development of the product and somehow, magically, Quirky kept track of everything. If a product succeeded, the people who contributed to its creation and influenced its development shared some ...
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Posted on May 07, 2016
From Press Release: AMERICA'S GREATEST MAKERS / SEASON 2 Now Casting: Designers, Engineers, Inventors and Makers! Calling all Designers, Engineers, Inventors and Makers! Intel, legendary Executive Producer Mark Burnett, MGM Television and Turner Broadcasting are looking for the most innovative makers to join Season 2 of America's Greatest Makers. Do you have an amazing idea for the next big smart connected device? Apply now for the chance to make your dream a reality using Intel's latest technology including the Intel Curie Module and upcoming advanced developer platforms that can connect to a broad array of input and output devices ...
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Posted on May 02, 2016
Google Search created an inflection point in human civilization by offering an elegant solution to finding relevant search results. That sounds like hyperbole. It’s not. That’s why Google is Google (or Alphabet as the case may be). Prior to Google Search, getting relevant information was hit and miss. Users would try sites like Altavista, Lycos, Yahoo and others and still not find what they were looking for. The PageRank algorithm created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin changed everything: one search at one site provided more relevant information in 10 seconds than an hour of banging around any of the ...
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Posted on April 29, 2016
The headline to this post could only be made more boring if it included the word "actuarial". But if you're an inventor, the stats on patent applications and lawsuits are actually pretty interesting. According to patent analysis firm Lex Machina, the number of patent lawsuits filed in 2013 was 6,092, 12% more than 2012 and more than double the number filed in 2010. At the same time, the number of patent lawsuits reaching courtrooms was around 100, a number that has been steady for nearly two decades. There are a fixed number of courtrooms and judges and that creates a ...
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Posted on April 23, 2016
SqueezeDriver® was the founding product of WorkTools Inc. and the inspiration for Invention City. With an Inventicator™ ICQ of 96 SqueezeDriver® scores at high end of "maybe"; it was and is a fantastic product, one of our favorites. But it's also a hard lesson in what a "maybe" can be and what happens when you are unable to let something go. SqueezeDriver® Rotary action screwdriver. US Patents 4524650, 4739838, D303,204 SqueezeDriver® was conceived by Joel Marks as a squeeze-ratchet combination tool while working on his 1967 MGB in the early 1980's (a car he still drives today). While employed ...
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Posted on April 20, 2016
Beginning inventors often throw around the word "patent" like it's a force field that magically protects an invention idea. Reality is quite different. Patents are complex things that protect details. The heart of a patent is the set of claims. The claims specify exactly what the patent actually covers. Scott Keeley, a registered patent agent in Rhode Island, recently contributed a great article on the subject of patent claims.Read it here: A Patent is as Strong as its Claims. ...
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Posted on April 20, 2016
The Make48 inventor competition will be held June 10th-12th, 2016 at the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. From Press Release:Make48 is a competition fostering innovation and invention for everyday trailblazers. Teams have 48-hours to plan, prototype, and pitch an idea for prizes and licensing potential. Only 15 teams will be chosen for this special event. VIP’s, sponsors, and teams will all be hand selected for this ingenious, themed event. Speakers from all around the United States will share their insight on inventing products, being entrepreneurs ...
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Posted on April 17, 2016
Free diving amateur scientists are pursuing a project that could shatter mankind's view of itself as the pinnacle of evolution - the ability to speak to sperm whales in their own language. Yes, conversing with Moby Dick: Sperm whales’ brains are the largest ever known, around six times the size of humans’. They have an oversize neocortex and a profusion of highly developed neurons called spindle cells that, in humans, govern things like emotional suffering, compassion and speech.“We finally have the technology and methods to significantly increase our understanding of one of the planet’s most intelligent animals,” said Mr. Schnöller ...
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Posted on April 09, 2016
Invention City's promise of Honest Inventing isn't a slogan. It's built into our DNA. We started as garage inventors 25 years ago and maintain that perspective today. But I don't want to write about our long history right now. This morning I ran across a collage of a Kickstarter project I did in 2012 for a made-in-New England Beanie. That project wasn't the biggest or most profitable, but in every other way It was 100%. There was no compromise in anything and everything we claimed and said was 100% true. The product was sourced 100% in New England from the ...
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Posted on April 09, 2016
Wow! Congratulations to the Space-X team for landing their rocket on a drone ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Science Fiction made real.
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Posted on April 05, 2016
Naming and describing things is one of the joys and burdens of inventing and product development. This thought came to me yesterday as once again I'm deeply engaged in creating a thing that needs names. In this case the thing I'm naming and describing can, with equal accuracy, be called an algorithm (sounds tech and cool), analysis tool (sounds valuable) or spreadsheet (boring). The thing is something Invention City uses to review invention ideas and determine their likelihood of commercial success. I've been calling it the "Inventicator" for a while now and the name is sticking. I notice that people ...
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Posted on April 03, 2016
Today's NYTimes has an interesting story about the development of a new way to obtain blood from women for diagnostic tests: In 2014, an engineer at Harvard named Ridhi Tariyal hit on a far simpler workaround. “I was trying to develop a way for women to monitor their own fertility at home,” she told me, and “those kinds of diagnostic tests require a lot of blood. So I was thinking about women and blood. When you put those words together, it becomes obvious. We have an opportunity every single month to collect blood from women, without needles. (read the full ...
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Posted on February 20, 2016
Go to the Inventicator AppIn a few short weeks Inventors will be able to set odds on their inventions like Jimmy the Greek Snyder with a new product called the Inventicator™. The Inventicator™ is an analysis tool that collects 62 weighted data points in 8 categories to tally up a score that is benchmarked against other inventions. It is a development of our 25+ years of successes and failures with new products. We are the guys at trade shows with a hot new product that has crowds filling the aisles. Sometimes those products succeeded, sometimes not. Trade shows are great ...
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Posted on February 13, 2016
This week's news includes the spectacular announcement that Einstein's prediction of 100 years ago has been proven true. Gravitational waves are real.Here is physicist Carlo Rovelli writing about what this means (LIGO is the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory):"The wave that LIGO has now been able to observe is the product of a catastrophic event: the merging of two black holes, each having the mass of several dozen Suns. The energy their spiraling impact radiated into space was that of three Suns vaporized in a fraction of a second. This cosmic explosion raised a galactic tsunami that has traveled more than ...
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Posted on January 26, 2016
In the world of sports the MVP is the "Most Valuable Player" who makes the greatest contribution to winning the game. In the world of product development a different but equally important MVP deserves attention. This MVP is the Minimally Viable Product. Since most new product ideas fail, the goal is to fail as quickly and inexpensively as possible. That's the point of the MVP. The MVP embodies the core concept(s) of a new product idea and is developed enough to test for meaningful market feedback. If the feedback is positive, more investment is justified. If not, call it a ...
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Posted on January 19, 2016
A spectacular failure on the path of product development took place on Sunday when the first stage of a two stage rocket returned to earth, landed precisely atop a platform floating on the ocean, then toppled over and exploded. Space-X is trying to radically cut the cost of rocketry by reusing the rockets that launch satellites rather than letting them sink into the ocean. In this case it seems a latch failed to secure one side of the rocket because of ice build-up. I had a similar problem with the ice maker last week. The results weren't quire as dramatic:https://www.instagram.com/p/BAqirNbwEc0/- ...
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Posted on January 11, 2016
We couldn't get to CES this year but the good people of Wired Magazine did. In short, the coolest things going were drones, 8k TVs, a reinvention of the Polaroid camera, hoverboards and all kinds of smart gadgets. Among the most ill considered was a reintroduction of the Super-8 movie camera (with film!) by Kodak. As an aspiring photographer I once looked into my true love's eyes and drifting off to sleep sweetly muttered, "Kodak and Ecktachrome". Never mind that Kodachrome was far superior, my point is that I loved Kodak. But Super 8? Seriously? Even though Quentin Tarantino reincarnated ...
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Posted on December 19, 2015
Patents are expensive, hard to get, difficult to understand and can cost a fortune to enforce. Trademarks are simple and cheap in comparison. While a patent lasts just 20 years, a trademark can last forever. A round of applause for trademarks! However, creating value in a trademark is incredibly hard. The words and/or logo do not have value until they are imprinted in the minds of consumers. That takes years of great marketing and publicity in conjunction with a great product or service and more often than not, millions of dollars in advertising. As part of a commercialization strategy, along ...
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Posted on November 25, 2015
Invention City Testimonials BEGIN A CONVERSATION WITH US Unsolicited Comments from Inventors on Brutally Honest Reviews and working with Invention City: November 18, 2022:"I just want to give a big thumbs up to Invention City. I had the most professional experience I have ever had. And they proved to me that they are for real. I can compare Invention City, Inc. to the Shark Tank a TV show I love because of the honesty and not someone that will tell you a lie just to get into your bank account or take a big charge on your credit card. Dan ...
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Posted on November 24, 2015
Ever wonder how a balloon pops? Check out this shirt NYT video:
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Posted on November 15, 2015
Inventor Ali Nawaz has launched a second Kickstarter for his Image Lock combination lock. The Image Lock uses pictures instead of numbers to create combinations that are easy to remember and fun. Now the Image Lock is available with colors on the image dial and a key option in back. The new Kickstarter offers new rewards too. Image Lock makes a great stocking stuffer for Christmas and can be used for bike locks, school and gym lockers, treasure chests and more.Ali came to Invention City for help with his first Kickstarter last year and together we achieved success. This year's ...
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Posted on November 14, 2015
Over the years we've seen it happen at least half a dozen times. We find an invention we like, we find a manufacturer who likes it, we set up a meeting with the inventor and manufacturer, the manufacturer makes a good offer and the inventor walks away - only to come back 6 months to a year later and say, "on second thought, I'll take that deal." At that point the deal is dead. Trust is gone and the manufacturer has moved on.It happened again last month. The inventor hasn't come back yet but I fully expect him to ...
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Posted on November 14, 2015
Wow. Six months ago I wrote a blog post about upgrading our website. The upgrade experience since then has been like a home remodeling project where you find that termites have eaten away load bearing beams and the foundation is disintegrating because of water damage. In our case things were so bad that the entire house, including the foundation, needed to be demolished and rebuilt. In the event, we managed to save nearly all of our stuff and have a new foundation, walls, windows and roof over our heads. Things like furniture, curtains and paint can now appear on our ...
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Posted on May 19, 2015
We're working to upgrade the look and functionality of InventionCity.com so that the site works better on mobile devices and it's easier to find what you're looking for. The Inventor Registry is going to be re-launched with real benefits. While the upgrade is taking place we'll still be providing first class invention reviews and possible licensing deals. Please feel free to email Mike Marks with any questions at mike@inventioncity.com.
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Posted on April 28, 2015
by Mike Marks The Apple Watch has a feature that Dick Tracy never imagined. It's called "taptic" and enables the watch to tap your wrist with a gentle human-like touch. It sounds a little creepy, but in fact it's simply nice and feels good, like someone cares about you. The touch can alert you that an important call has come in, that it's time to do something and when the inevitable apps come out, that you need to stop at the store you just passed to buy some milk. It can even send you a lover's heartbeat from a thousand ...
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Posted on March 04, 2015
LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany, Feb. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Open Innovation Contest BASF aims to find ideas to store energy from renewable energy sources. The context calls for sustainable technologies which are capable of storing power from the grid and feeding it back into it. Together with companies, scientists, start-ups and inventors, BASF is looking for efficient solutions to store electricity on a long-term basis, which are financially viable, for example through lower investment costs. Innovative chemistry should play a central role in the submitted proposals. Ideas can be submitted online until June 2, 2015, at NineSights ( www.ninesigma.com/). BASF ...
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Posted on March 04, 2015
LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany, Feb. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Open Innovation Contest BASF aims to find ideas to store energy from renewable energy sources. The context calls for sustainable technologies which are capable of storing power from the grid and feeding it back into it. Together with companies, scientists, start-ups and inventors, BASF is looking for efficient solutions to store electricity on a long-term basis, which are financially viable, for example through lower investment costs. Innovative chemistry should play a central role in the submitted proposals. Ideas can be submitted online until June 2, 2015, at NineSights ( www.ninesigma.com/). BASF ...
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Posted on February 27, 2015
Anyone who's been to an invention show knows that Inventors love to invent toilets. But true innovations in toilet technology are rare. Now there's a new concept that really twists things around. It's called the Iota Folding Toilet and was designed by Elliott Whiteley and Gareth Humphreys while studying Product Design at The University of Huddersfield in England. It's intended to save space in small bathrooms. Read about the toilet of the future at Wonderful Engineering
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Posted on February 27, 2015
Simple, inspiring and beautiful. The Chinese were probably doing this over 1000 years ago:
The title is ridiculous though. Thailand is hardly "3rd world" these days and India and China have more active space programs than western countries. ...
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Posted on January 28, 2015
So many products come from China today that it's easy for US consumers to think of that country as an impersonal machine that simply fills purchase orders for Best Buy and Home Depot. If we travel as business people we know China better through relationships and deep friendships with the people who run and own the factories. What we never know, are the lives of the people who work in those factories, the realities of how they live, what their families are like, what they dream of. Last Train Home is an extraordinary documentary about people who make "made in ...
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Posted on January 24, 2015
We make most of our profits by accepting inventions and then successfully commercializing some of them. Below are some examples of submissions Invention City has accepted over the past few years. Submit your invention for a Brutally Honest Review Like other risky investments, inventing is a form of gambling. Even the most amazing inventions are more likely to fail than succeed. The hard fact is that when we offer a licensing deal, the odds are around 90% that the invention will NOT make us any money (that is why we are picky). The good news for inventors is that once ...
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Posted on January 12, 2015
How to Avoid Invention Scams by Ronald L Docie, Sr., President, Docie Development, LLC © 2010 All rights reserved - You could not create a better scenario for a scam than you have in the invention business. The real scam is the inventor’s attitude, fueled by misleading information. Consider these assumptions. Assumption Number One Arguably, 999 of every 1,000 inventions never make it from idea stage to the marketplace. This figure certainly could be off by a factor of 10 in one direction or the other depending on how far an idea has advanced before you start counting it, and ...
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Posted on December 30, 2014
SUPERSONIC PROTOTYPING and a Happy New Year by Mike Marks A lot has been going on in the world of 3D printing recently. Pioneer rapid prototyping machine makers like 3D Systems and Stratysys sold expensive machines to large corporations. Now there is improved lower cost technology with offerings from fast moving upstarts like Makerbot (recently bought by Stratysys), who make machines for small companies and hobbyists. Where just a few years ago it was hard to find a rapid prototyping service, now it's easy to find one. It's especially easy now because of a fantastic new service offered by 3DHubs.com ...
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Posted on December 29, 2014
2015 is about to begin and designers and inventors across the US and around the world have crowdfunding projects planned to fund their "first production run" in the coming year. Crowdfunding is a fantastic way to turn a product idea into reality. But there are many pitfalls. If you are considering a project on Kickstarter, Indiegogo or other crowdfunding platform where the goal is to deliver a product, you should read this Inc. article by Eric Markowitz about designer Seth Quest's Kickstarter experience. The lesson is that you need to have all your ducks in a row before you hit ...
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Posted on December 22, 2014
It came down to the wire, but with 10 hours to go and some clever entrepreneurship by inventor Ali Nawaz, the Kickstarter for IMAGE LOCK made its funding goal. This was a difficult Kickstarter project because the product didn't have an easily targeted audience and needed to be sold primarily on gadget appeal. Invention City produced and ran the Kickstarter for Ali and directly contacted 30+ writers at publications big and small who care about cool gizmos gadgets and inventions of all kinds. We had one hit with a nice review in Gizmodo. We also paid for Facebook posts and ...
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Posted on December 05, 2014
Brutally Honest Review & Licensing OpportunitiesLearn About PrototypingLearn About PatentsLearn About ManufacturingAsk Questions: info@inventioncity.com $1,000,000,000,000 = a million million dollars Maurice Ward's Invention of Starlight might have been one. Is a trillion dollar idea possible? Numbers can be hard to feel but we need to feel them to understand them. So, before moving on to answer the question, I want to try and give a feeling for what $1,000,000,000,000 feels like. We live in extraordinary times. In 2014, according to Wikipedia and not counting kings, queens, sultans and dictators, 1,645 individuals in the world can be counted as having ...
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Posted on November 28, 2014
Message from Mike Marks, Invention City Hello Inventors and friends of inventors – I hope your Holidays are off to a great start. I’m writing to invite you to help a fellow inventor succeed with a Kickstarter campaign for his new invention. Ali Nawaz returned from serving as an Intelligence Officer with the US Recon Marines in Afghanistan with the idea for a new kind of combination lock, a lock that uses images instead of numbers on its dial. Invention City is now running a Kickstarter campaign for him – you can see it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inventioncity/image-lock-fun-easy-to-remember-combination-lock Please take a minute ...
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Posted on November 25, 2014
Invention City launched a Kickstarter today in conjunction with New York inventor Ali Nawaz:
See the project on Kickstarter HERE ...
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Posted on November 25, 2014
Inventor Arteste Jones made us aware of a new technology that enables wireless electricity from a company called WiTricity. WiTricity offers a platform technology that can revolutionize thousands of old products and inspire thousands of new ones. If you're an inventor looking for a fertile field for inventing, new products that incorporate WiTricity might be just the ticket. An introductory product called Prodigy is available to developers for less than $1000.
Invention City thinks WiTricity is fantastic and looks forward to seeing where it goes.
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Posted on November 03, 2014
Twenty years after the last SqueezeDriver™ was assembled in Chatsworth California, nearly a decade after the patents expired, SqueezeDriver™ lives again. This time there's a licensing deal with Arrow instead of a new company. But original inventor Joel Marks is still involved and there is even a new patent (pending). The aha moment came in 1981 when Joel was working in a tight spot in the engine compartment of his 1967 MGB (a car he continues to drive daily). Frustrated by turning fasteners just one click at a time he conceived a squeeze-powered rotary screwdriver and ratchet. For three years ...
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Posted on October 30, 2014
Inventor feels ripped off by Invention Company. Is there anything to be done? S. Hemngway asks: "I submitted an idea to an invention company in 2002. I filled out the paperwork requiring drawing and descriptions of the idea. I never made a prototype or got a patent. It was a very good idea, especially since it's being sold today. The problem is that I am not the one selling it. I think the invention company stole my idea.back in 2002. I faxed them the paperwork with the drawing and description. They called me and told me it would cost x ...
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Posted on October 10, 2014
"A Better Squirrel Trap" is an invention project in the advanced prototype stage with a US patent pending. Final engineering and product sourcing are now taking place. The product is scheduled to launch in Spring 2015 with help from Invention City. It will be the first product for a new business. Details about how the trap is better, the inventor and partnership behind it, will be made public when the launch date is closer. If you'd like Invention City to help you commercialize your great product idea the first step is to sign up for a Brutally Honest Review here. ...
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Posted on October 01, 2014
Many of you have heard of Quirky, a business/website that crowd sources inventions. While Quirky has enjoyed enormous success, it's never been clear if the company offers a good deal for serious independent inventors. Their processes of assigning credit to inventions, choosing which ones to commercialize, managing intellectual property and turning selected ideas into manufactured and distributed products are byzantine. Some inventors seem to be making money, but it's hard to say if the number of inventor success stories are commensurate with Quirky's efforts. What is undeniably clear is that Quirky is doing a great job of building a line ...
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Posted on August 06, 2014
Professionals who want to make money with you, not from you.After a successful career as a boxer, George Foreman put down his boxing gloves, marketed the grill that bears his name, made oodles of money and became a loveable, trustworthy, grandfather figure. In recent years he's been appearing in ads for "his friends" at Invent Help, an invention services company (not related to Invention City). You can see the ad here. George Foreman didn't make his money by using Invent Help's services. He made his money by marketing a grill developed by others. There's nothing wrong with that and ...
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Posted on July 02, 2014
A young inventor asked for advice on how to get started. In particular he wanted to know how to get in touch with investors. Here was my reply: After graduating college I briefly worked for a reknowned photographer named Leigh Weiner. He told me a story about a photo shoot he'd done with J Paul Getty in 1967 back when Getty was the richest man in the world. He asked Getty for advice on how to succeed. Getty told him, "There's no one way to heaven." After three decades working in a wide range of businesses and with many inventions ...
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Posted on June 20, 2014
A basic rule of patents is that a known idea cannot be patented. In practice the US Patent and Trademark Office has made an exception to that rule by issuing patents for known ideas that are implemented with a computer. Yesterday, the Supreme Court, with Clarence Thomas writing the opinion, said that merely using a computer to perform a known idea is not patentable. The decision helps to bring back logic, consistency and fairness to the patent system. This ruling should take some of the wind out of the sails of those who've been arguing that the patent system should ...
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Posted on June 17, 2014
How can a "no" be a good thing? The following emails were recently received by Invention City after Brutally Honest Reviews where Dan Fulford told the inventors that Invention City would not license or represent their inventions: June 17, 2014 I recently had a very important review of my invention with Dan at Invention City. I wish I could have this review two years ago because I wouldn't have lost my hard earned money to a company that wasn't being truthful at all. My mother used to say if you know the truth it will set you free. That is ...
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Posted on June 05, 2014
An Invention Story June 4, 2014 By Milan Rafailovich Evolution of the RoboSnail: From Idea to Reality The saying that necessity is the mother of invention actually is more true than you may imagine. In fact, this especially true when developing tools or new process methods in order to achieve a desired end result to already existing or potential problems. This necessity to develop a better process was the driving force when it came to the development of my current item the RoboSnail, the world’s first and only automated aquarium glass cleaner. Coming Up With the Idea The “ah-ha” moment ...
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Posted on June 05, 2014
June 4, 2014 - In today's NYTimes the Editors write that two recent rulings by the US Supreme Court have made it easier for people to understand how patents should be written and interpreted. "In Nautilus Inc. v. Biosig Instruments Inc., the court ruled that for a patent to be valid, its creators had to describe the essential elements of their invention and how it can be used clearly enough that a person skilled in the field could understand it with 'reasonable certainty.' ...The Government Accountability Office and legal experts have said that the Patent and Trademark Office has granted ...
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Posted on April 12, 2014
Patents Are Complicated. Here Are Six Things Every Inventor Should Know.by Mike MarksFounder of Invention CityNOTE: The following is a business perspective on patents and should not be taken as legal advice.Gator Grip's patents have expired and knockoffs have appeared. But for 20 years the patents did their work."Meaningful patent" is a term we use a lot at Invention City. Getting a patent of some sort isn't especially hard. Having patent claims with real value is something else altogether. A great example of this is the Gator-Grip® universal socket invented by Joel Marks (my brother) of WorkTools, Inc. (I'm ...
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Posted on March 25, 2014
Hello Mike! this is Andres from Miami! I'm developing products and believe licensing is the way to go. My idea is to present my projects to companies in a professional way, combining my knowledge on marketing and branding with licensing. ...I find many books from authors who seem to be "successful " in their deals, but these experts are more successful selling books than explaining... the only good material on the entire web is Inventing 102 (at Invention City). Now my question, what would be the best way to start a good study on licensing? Which would be the best ...
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Posted on March 17, 2014
March 17, 2014, International Housewares Show Chicago - Over 2,000 exhibitors and 60,000+ attendees have come together to see new and old product offerings at the International Housewares Show now taking place at McCormick Place. Dan Fulford and I have been walking the show and making presentations of invention ideas accepted by Invention City. It's never good to count chickens before they hatch or royalties before the check clears, but it looks like at least two licensing deals with strong housewares retailers will come out of this show. We'll see what happens in the weeks to come. Being at this ...
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Posted on March 17, 2014
March 17, 2014, International Housewares Show Chicago - Over 2,000 exhibitors and 60,000+ attendees have come together to see new and old product offerings at the International Housewares Show now taking place at McCormick Place. Dan Fulford and I have been walking the show and making presentations of invention ideas accepted by Invention City. It's never good to count chickens before they hatch or royalties before the check clears, but it looks like at least two licensing deals with strong housewares retailers will come out of this show. We'll see what happens in the weeks to come. Being at this ...
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Posted on March 17, 2014
March 17, 2014, International Housewares Show Chicago - Over 2,000 exhibitors and 60,000+ attendees have come together to see new and old product offerings at the International Housewares Show now taking place at McCormick Place. Dan Fulford and I have been walking the show and making presentations of invention ideas accepted by Invention City. It's never good to count chickens before they hatch or royalties before the check clears, but it looks like at least two licensing deals with strong housewares retailers will come out of this show. We'll see what happens in the weeks to come. Being at this ...
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Posted on March 17, 2014
March 17, 2014, International Housewares Show Chicago - Over 2,000 exhibitors and 60,000+ attendees have come together to see new and old product offerings at the International Housewares Show now taking place at McCormick Place. Dan Fulford and I have been walking the show and making presentations of invention ideas accepted by Invention City. It's never good to count chickens before they hatch or royalties before the check clears, but it looks like at least two licensing deals with strong housewares retailers will come out of this show. We'll see what happens in the weeks to come. Being at this ...
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Posted on March 03, 2014
by Mike Marks Founder of Invention CityRecently an inventor hired Invention City to review a licensing agreement from a business perspective. Her invention idea was incredibly simple, so simple it was shocking that it hadn't been done before. In getting to the negotiation stage she had been advised by a patent attorney. No patent had been filed yet, but she did have a one year Confidentiality Agreement in place. The licensing agreement was a first draft written by the company. It was a product of prior discussions between the inventor and company. The inventor's attorney told her he wasn't experienced ...
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Posted on February 12, 2014
Why it matters to inventors Businesses that make and sell tangible products carry inventory. Inventory is all of the stuff that's sold with a finished product including materials, subassemblies, packaging and printed instructions. When inventory is sold it's turned into cash. That cash pays for salaries, rent, operations and restocking more inventory. The inventory cycle is the process of turning inventory into cash, back into inventory and then into cash again. Each time you convert inventory into cash is a "turn". Along with profit margin, the rate of turn is a key factor that determines how fast a business can ...
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Posted on January 27, 2014
Last week on NPR’s Science Friday, James Dyson, inventor of the eponymous vacuum cleaner spoke about the process of inventing. Dyson says he built 5,127 prototypes before completing his first bagless vacuum. “My life and my day are full of failures,” he said. “Failures are interesting.” He went on to say that inventors should never give up and shouldn’t listen to negative opinions. “Noooo!” I yelled at the radio. This idea, the idea that inventors should doggedly stick to their inventions through hell, high water and negative opinions is so commonplace that it’s almost trite. Unfortunately it’s not trite. It’s ...
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Posted on December 27, 2013
Economist John Maynard Keynes famously said that in the long run we’re all dead. What happens in the not too distant future if that’s not strictly true? Imagine just twenty to thirty years from now when it’s entirely possible that everything you know about yourself and the world around you is stored in the ever growing electronic cloud. At some point there will almost certainly come to exist an alternate version of you that thinks, feels and desires, but lives its life in cyberspace rather than (or in addition to) the physical world. In cyberspace you would have powers far ...
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Posted on December 23, 2013
If you've received a trademark in recent years you may have also received official looking solicitations disguised as invoices from companies such as Brand Registration Office in Washington DC, Novislink in London and WIPT in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. The invoice amounts range from $1,200 to $2,738 but, to the best of our knowledge, the services offered are worth $0. If you seek to protect your trademark beyond US registration please check with a reputable trademark attorney. Similar so-called services are offered with regard to patents too. Pay attention. If you didn't agree to a service in advance you shouldn't pay ...
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Posted on October 23, 2013
There are all types of prototypes, from virtual to real, from MakerBot to balsa wood, from crude to highly refined. The most important thing to know about prototypes is that they're important. Following is a link to a great short article on how to quickly, creatively and inexpensively make prototypes that will enable you to better understand, develop and sell your invention ideas The article is by Tom and David Kelly, the design team duo behind IDEO in Palo Alto, creators of Apple's first computer mouse and much, much more. Here it is: Why Designers Should Never Go to a ...
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Posted on June 13, 2013
by Edward Lakatis Oftentimes, we don’t give kids enough credit on the things that they can do. Kids are actually pretty smart and very inventive too. On a number of occasions, they’ve been known to think up some pretty neat stuff. Of course, it goes without saying that kids may be especially talented in coming up with cool toys. Here, we’ve taken the time to feature some amazing toys that were invented by a bunch of extremely talented kid inventors. Read on and be amazed at the awesome inventions: Water talkies- we’ve all heard of walkie talkies, but an eleven ...
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Posted on April 12, 2013
The first thing anyone considering an idea should do is to search on the Internet to see if they can find something similar. Go to Google or Bing and type in key words that describe your invention in various ways. Use descriptions of the similar things you find to come up with new ways to describe your invention. Amazon.com is also a great place to do some basic research. The information you find will help you discover whether or not your invention idea is already being made and sold. The next step is a simple patent search. It's far easier ...
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Posted on February 16, 2013
Can you handle the truth about invention service companies and patent attorneys?by Mike Marks Learn about Invention City's submission and evaluation program here. I've never wanted Invention City to be a typical invention company, a company that takes money for developing inventions that should never be developed in the first place. Most inventors have ideas they should NOT spend money on. While going forward with an invention costs a minimum of $10,000 with a typical invention service company, the cost to an inventor of doing the job right on his or her own can easily reach $200,000 and more. I ...
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Posted on December 23, 2012
This past year I've negoitiated licensing deals, partnerships, patent infringement settlements and buyouts. Some have been intense and acrimonious with expletives and threats flying at me and my partners. Others have been easy and friendly. In all of them I followed sage advice I received from my Uncle Jesse nearly 25 years ago: know what you need before you start, know what "yes" will be and try to get a little more. The biggest danger in a negotiation comes from worrying about what the other guy is getting, worrying that his slice of the pie is too big. If you ...
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Posted on August 25, 2012
Apple wins $1 billion+ in patent infringement case against Samsung Even before the trial began it was clear that Samung had been inspired by Apple's concepts. The question was whether or not Samsung had crossed the legal line that distinguishes inspiration from theft. Last Friday a jury decided that Samsung had crossed that line on six patents and awarded Apple $1.05 billion as compensation for actual losses. The jury further determined that Samsung knew it was violating the patents and proceeded to make and sell knockoff products anyway - this means the judge could punish Samsung for its willful patent ...
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Posted on August 05, 2012
It goes against American culture, contrary to the advice of self-help gurus and business advisors: thinking negatively can be good for you. People who believe that tomorrow will be better should coldly consider that tomorrow could in fact be worse. Those sentiments roughly summarize the recent editorial by Oliver Burke, "The Power of Negative Thinking." His thoughts were inspired by the recent news that 21 participants in an Anthony Robbins motivational event badly burned their feet from walking over hot coals. Recognizing reality is what it's all about. Motivation and belief do not trump the physics of fire. Fears of ...
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Posted on July 11, 2012
The desire to cool air for comfort predates history. The record begins around 200 AD when Chinese inventor Ding Huan of the Han Dynasty invented a human powered 7 wheel fan that was nearly 10 feet in diameter. 500 years later Emperor Xuanzong built a water-powered fan that included fountains in the Imperial Palace. In 1758, Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley, a chemistry professor at Cambridge University, studied evaporation as a means of cooling. They found that highly volatile liquids such as alcohol and ether could be evaporated to cool a thermometer down to 7F in ambient air of ...
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Posted on March 05, 2012
In low income communities across the globe, natural light is often unavailable in windowless homes crowded together under corrugated metal roofs. Even on the brightest days interior lighting is provided by expensive electricity. Innovators in the Philippines are now implementing a low cost solution using discarded soda bottles.
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Posted on February 02, 2012
Irina asks:"You have mentioned that the product needs to be a stand alone and not an add-on to an existing product. Now this got me a bit confused in regards to my product which I am thinking of putting on DRTV. My product is a streak-free, natural, safe, glass cleaner that can be used for glass, mirrors, electronics, screens on tvs, computers, ipads and more. The market test was very positive. From your professional point of view do you think I should launch DRTV, is it an add-on?, any suggestions will be appreciated? Thank you."Stand-alone products are much easier to ...
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Posted on October 27, 2011
October 27, 2011 - UK based Renegade Productions, (makers of Planet Mechanics), are looking for innovative design and engineering brains to front a new, 6-part science television series. Two teams of top problem solvers will design and build prototype solutions to real-world problems. Whether the Chief of Police in Villamoura, Portugal, throws down the challenge to STOP JOY RIDERS, or the Norwegian Mountain Rescue challenges them to come up with a new AVALANCHE RESCUE DESIGN, our teams will come up with inventive solutions which demonstrate hands on skills and lateral thinking. Solutions to problems like these could genuinely make ...
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Posted on October 20, 2011
A century from now Steve Jobs will be remembered alongside Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, the Wright Brothers and Walt Disney. He ushered the new light of personal information into the world, mass produced it, made it fly and coupled it with new forms of entertainment. Jobs once said that all computers do is pick up and rearrange numbers, but if they do it fast enough, the results appear to be magic. His career was spent packaging that magic into sleek boxes with user friendly form and function. Jobs was among the first to recognize that computers could be sold ...
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Posted on September 13, 2011
September 13, 2011 - Last Thursday, just before President Obama's speech on jobs, the House of Representatives passed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. The new law is considered the biggest change to the U.S. patent system in decades. The US will now join the rest of the industrial world with a system that gives priority to the first to file rather than the first to invent. The legislation allows challenges to patents after they have been allowed for a set period of time — so-called post-grant review — a process similar to that of trademarks. Further, a re-examination of an ...
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Posted on August 20, 2011
There are real inventions like the integrated circuit, the airplane and the cotton gin and then there are marketing concepts like the Pet Rock and now, the $100,000 Zafirro Iridium razor blade.The company says that the Iridium is the world’s first razor with sapphire blades. According to Zaffiro CEO Hayden Hamilton, the 80 atom wide sapphire blade provides a finer tip than steel. The razor's handle is made up of stainless steel and iridium, with the iridium comprising the handle’s skeleton. Hamilton says iridium is "10 times rarer than platinum and made mainly from meteorites... It’s the strongest functional metal ...
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Posted on July 07, 2011
Farhad Manjoo has posted a glowing review of a new LED light-bulb from a company called Switch Lighting. He writes that the most remarkable thing about the new bulb is that the light it produces is totally unremarkable - it looks just like a typical incandescent bulb but uses roughly 1/5 the power. And it doesn't have the huge toxic drawback of compact fluorescent bulbs, namely, mercury. The new bulb is beautiful too. The main drawback today is that it's expensive. A 60 watt bulb costs $20 and should last for nearly twenty years. Even at today's high price ...
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Posted on June 25, 2011
On June 23, 2011 the House of Representatives passed the "America Invents Act." A similar Bill passed in the Senate last March. Both Senate and House passed their Bills by large majorities. They will now merge the two Bills into one (a process called "reconciliation") and pass it on to President Obama. The President has said he will sign it. The law will switch America from a first-to-invent system to a first-to-file system. The law will also expand the type of ‘prior art’ that can be considered for patentability and sets up a new process for challenging patents at ...
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Posted on June 20, 2011
Joel Marks is the lead inventor for WorkTools, Inc. He has over 75 US patents in his name and is the creator of PowerShot "forward-action" staple guns, Gator-Grip universal sockets, PaperPro desktop staplers and much more. Joel develops his inventions like an old world craftsman coupled with a zen master. He touches and feels with both his hands and his mind. He understands how a spring feels as it compresses and releases, from both the perspective of a user working a spring-powered device and from the perspective of the spring itself. Joel recently put down some thoughts on his methodology ...
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Posted on June 03, 2011
Photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert and store energy from the sun, is the most powerful energy conversion process on the planet. Imagine if that process could be reconfigured to turn sunlight into fuel that could heat homes and power cars and trucks. That's what Nathan S. Lewis, a chemistry professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena is working on. He is the principal investigator for a five-year artificial-photosynthesis project that was awarded a grant of up to $122 million by the federal Department of Energy. “We will be leading a national and international effort to ...
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Posted on April 06, 2011
by Mike Marks Founder of Invention City GW asks: I have an invention which I believe best suited for the DRTV infomercial marketplace. The prototype works and market research says go. I'd like to license it to _______. However they say they do not sign NDA agreements! In fact all of the verbiage on their inventor submission page seems to basically say they can do whatever they want with your invention. That seems very suspicious to me, like they are trying to take advantage of inventors who are eager to get their ideas heard. When the president of the company ...
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Posted on March 07, 2011
Blowing a bubble blanket under the hull of a large ship can cut down fuel consumption by 5-20%. This works because air offers less resistance than water. A few things must come together for this invention to function. The bubbles must be created fast enough to keep the bottom covered and kept in place as the ship cruises forward and, at the same time, the bubbles must not diminish the hydrodynamics of the propeller. Damen Shipyards Group, a Dutch firm that builds more than 150 ships a year, has found that bubbles trapped in specially designed hull cavities cut ...
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Posted on February 24, 2011
Sculpteo - European Prototyping CompanySculpteo, a European prototyping company, is now offering the ability to shrink yourself! With the ability to transform digital files into real-life, physical objects, Sculpteo allows digital dreamers to turn 3D files into 3-dimensional creations, as well as create easily 3D objects based on 2D drawings or simple text. Sculpteo makes it easy for users to edit or customize items by allowing them to select size, material, and color or monochrome printing options -- all done conveniently online. That means you never have to speak to a customer rep and deal with back and forth. Once ...
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Posted on February 22, 2011
Inventors use wasps as bedbug detectors and more.
The Wasp Hound is the invention of two Georgia scientists, Glen C. Rains and W. Joe Lewis. The hand-held device contains five stinger-free, flying, parasitic wasps that can do a better job than dogs in detecting cadavers, explosives, drugs and even bedbugs. The wasps are bred to respond to different scents and can be taught to react to the whiff of bedbugs’ pheromones. Mr. Rains and Mr. Lewis are now seeking to raise $200,000 to take their invention to the next level. Here's the full story from Amy Wallace at NYTimes.
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Posted on February 22, 2011
New director wants faster invention patents.The Internet era has been raging for over a decade but only in the last three years has the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) begun to accept a majority of its applications in digital form. David J. Kappos is the new head of the USPTO and his goal is to quickly bring the office into the 21st century. At the moment the patent office’s pipeline is so clogged it takes two years for an inventor to get an initial ruling, and an additional year or more wrangling with examiner objections, for a patent to ...
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Posted on February 15, 2011
Hugh Bradner was an American physicist at the University of California whose invention of the wetsuit first revolutionized scuna diving then surfing and other water sports. Bradner took a position studying high-energy physics at the University of California, Berkeley in 1946 under Luis Alvarez, whom he had worked with at the Manhattan Project. Bradner's job at UC Berkeley required him to do a number of underwater dives. He had previously talked to United States Navy frogmen during World War II concerning the problems of staying in cold water for long periods of time, which causes the diver to lose large ...
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Posted on February 02, 2011
Rocket science is stuck in a rut and it's all Hitler's fault. If he had invested Germany's waning resources into Messerschmitts instead of V-2s we probably wouldn't have had ballistic missiles, or a space program, and we'd now be using cool alternatives like space slingshots. This is the interesting argument put forth by Neal Stephenson in an excellent article at Slate. Stephenson reviews the history of rocket development and finds that the 8 trillion dollars spent by the USA and USSR created a process for putting things into space that's impossible to get away from. There is no shortage ...
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Posted on January 25, 2011
Kokichi Sugihara has invented a way to trick our eyes into believing that gravity can be defied. He doesn't use magnets or trick photography or special editing. He's made a model with cardboard that takes advantage of the assumptions our brains make about reality. In the following short video it looks like balls are rolling uphill. Click here to see Impossible Motion.
Sugihara teaches at the Meiji Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences in Japan. See more of Sugihara's illusions in a longer video
here.
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Posted on January 19, 2011
Kevin asks: I designed a unique hand fan a while back and had a patent search done on it. The patent attorney told me not to get my hopes up because there’s a 50% chance that it has already been invented. Well, 2 weeks later, he told me that he couldn’t find anything on the market like it, and that I have a really good chance of getting it patented. So, about a week and half ago I filed for a provisional patent with the USPTO and now I’m waiting to get a patent number “Hopefully”. Other than that, I ...
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Posted on January 17, 2011
Israeli inventor Amit Goffer spent ten years perfecting the technology that goes into “Rewalk”, a device that works like bionic legs and soon will help wounded American soldiers get back on their feet. Rewalk is a set of mechanical legs attached to a backpack battery system that allows a paralyzed patient to “walk” all day and even climb stairs. The invention strikes a balance between the man and the machine – the machine has to move the man but the man has to control the machine. It uses a simple remote control worn like a wrist watch. When the user ...
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Posted on January 13, 2011
T.A. Sciences Announces the First U.S. Patent for Compositions and Methods for Increasing Telomerase Activity from a Natural Source. NEW YORK, Jan. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Telomerase Activation Sciences, Inc. (T.A. Sciences) today announced the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 7,846,904 to the Geron Corporation. The patent covers the use of certain compounds to upregulate telomerase expression in cells. T.A. Sciences has exclusive worldwide rights to technology under this patent for nutraceutical and cosmetic applications. "This foundational patent is a validation of the millions of dollars and more than 8 years of effort we have invested to bring TA-65, the ...
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Posted on January 11, 2011
Staples Found Guilty in PaperPro® Patent Case PaperPro® stapler manufacturer wins patent infringement case against Staples NEWTOWN, Pa., Jan. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- In Los Angeles Federal District Court, a jury delivered a unanimous guilty verdict on all claims against office products retailer Staples (SPLS) in a patent infringement case filed by Accentra, Inc., makers of the PaperPro® stapler and its partner WorkTools, Inc.. At issue were three patents for Accentra's innovative spring-powered staplers - which convert the light touch of a finger into staple-driving power. The jury found that Accentra's patents were valid, and that Staples willfully infringed on ...
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Posted on January 10, 2011
Each year the Consumer Electronics (CES) Show in Las Vegas brings the latest high tech offerings to public eyes for the first time. Here are three items that the technology writers at the NYTimes found interesting: Android - A few years ago industry experts and analysts doubted that Android’s one-size-fits-all approach to software would be successful with phone makers But many hardware manufacturers are now focusing on creating products that run on Android. Inductive Power - The most well-known applications of inductive power are pads that can charge smart-phones without wires and cook-tops that can heat pots and pans, but ...
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Posted on December 23, 2010
International Patent CostsSix Things to Know About PatentsThoughts on Patent DefenseMore About Invention Development, Licensing and Patent CostsBrutally Honest Review & Licensing OpportunitiesProvisional Patent Outline (Do It Yourself and save $$$)Note: The following information on patents is presented from the perspective of an experienced inventor. It is not legal advice. To understand how patent laws pertain to your invention and to manage the complexities of patent filings you should consult with a registered patent attorney or agent. Updated December 2023.There is no such thing as an International Patent or a World Patent, no single patent filing that will protect your ...
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Posted on December 13, 2010
On December 4th the town of Farmington, Maine celebrated inventor Chester Greenwood for his invention of ear muffs in 1873 at the age of 15. He reportedly came up with the idea while ice skating, and had his grandmother sew tufts of fur between loops of wire. His patent was for improved ear protectors. He manufactured these ear protectors, providing jobs for people in the Farmington area, for nearly 60 years. Chester also patented a tea kettle, a steel tooth rake, an advertising matchbox, and a machine used in producing wooden spools for wire and thread. He invented, but did ...
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Posted on December 04, 2010
On November 30th Apple was issued US patent #7,843,449 for a "Three-dimensional display system." The patented technology enables different people at different places in a room to view a screen with images in 3D without special glasses. As each viewer moves from one position to another, a sensor tracks their location and projects a custom view by beaming a split image onto a textured, reflective screen. The separate images are then reflected back into the targeted eyeball to create an un-altered 3D image in any location at any angle. Read a more detailed description from Kevin Parrish at Tom's Guide.
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Posted on December 03, 2010
Inventors follow well worn paths in creating, refining, protecting and commercializing their inventions. There is no simple formula or magic wand to wave and find success. But there are some established steps that nearly all successful inventors take. Information on those steps can be found in the free articles at Invention City and on the electronic bookshelves of Amazon. But as good as that information is, it's disconnected from when and where you'll use it. NventNode software minimizes that disconnection with a powerful step-by-step invention/product development process that guides the inventor and enables conficential collaboration with advisers and partners - ...
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Posted on November 22, 2010
On November 10, 2010, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) announced extension of its Green Technology Pilot Program for fast review of Green Tech patents to include applications filed on or after December 8, 2009 through December 31, 2011. The program had been scheduled to expire on December 8, 2010. The program remains limited to 3,000 applications in all.The Green Tech prrogram expedites its review of patent applications for “green technologies” ahead of other applications and also waives the $130 fee for expedited review. The goal is to get green technology market faster by jumping the line for ...
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Posted on November 18, 2010
Pamella asks: I am contacting you in search of a real, brutally honest answer regarding an invention company. I have paid several hundred dollars for the first stage of my invention. I am now at stage 2 - where the dollar amount substantially increases to nearly 10K as you indicate on your site. With the economy the way it is and my personal finances recovering, I am now reluctant to continue to move forward based on finances alone. Do you have any recommendations for me? Should I research investors? etc.... Is this company reputable? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank ...
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Posted on November 16, 2010
Hunter Patrick Patercsak was freezing his fingers numb while texting friends from a tree stand in the woods. After typing a few words he'd have to shove his hands into his fur lined muff to thaw them out. That was his Eureka! moment. He came up with the idea of a warming muff with a window in it so that he could text in the cold without numbing his fingers. His friends thought the idea was great. He refined the idea and took it into production. He calls his creation Textpac. It's useful for anyone who wants to text in ...
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Posted on November 12, 2010
Top whatever-the-number lists are good ways of learnng about things that other people feel are important. Some lists are well considered and presented. Others, not so much. Time Magazine just came out with its Fifty Best Inventions of 2010. We could quibble with the fact that it's not even mid-November and the year has more than six more weeks to run. Leave that aside. Time has done an excellent job. The choices are superb and the descriptions for each one are well written and informative. The inventions run the gamut iof society and are hyped by Time as follows ...
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Posted on November 11, 2010
Dale asks: I have an invention idea that consists of a few pieces you can buy separately at most hardware stores. Is it worthwhile to pursue this idea or once people see it would they go out and get the materials and assemble it themselves? Thanks and have a great day! ============================== Combining existing items for a new and useful purpose is a classic form of invention. The fact that people could easily make the same combination once they learn about it is not a reason to drop the idea. However, if the patent examiner thinks the idea is "obvious" ...
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Posted on November 10, 2010
Chris Calhoun, the 44-year-old CEO of San Diego-based biotech company Cytori Therapeutics, has found a way of removing stem cells from fat tissue and processing them for breast restoration and augmentation. His technology can be used to repair hearts and kidneys too, but getting FDA approval for fixing breasts is far easier. His business and invention have gone through many phases. Now after $200 million in R&D, he has a “box” known as the Celution System. It looks like a souped-up photocopier. But instead of taking in originals and spitting out replicas, it turns liposuctioned fat into breast-making gold. Here's ...
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Posted on November 08, 2010
Blair asks: I am working on developing a product that is contingent on the size/measurements of a preexisting product that varies slightly from one type to the other. Is it possible to design my product using ratios rather than static measurements? For example, "Plane A of new invention is equal to a 1:0.9 the preexisting product's plane A." Plane A's Measurement will be written as "0.9:1"--thus making it 0.9 inches if the preexisting product has a length of 1 inch. Is this an acceptable practice? ================================ Disclaimer - I am not a patent attorney and am not qualified to give ...
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Posted on October 30, 2010
Nintendo's Wii is about to become seriously old school. On Friday Microsoft said that it was buying Canesta, a small Silicon Valley company that specializes in gesture-recognition technology. The technology uses depth perceiving video cameras that see a user's gestures and facial expressions and translates them into computer commands - similar to systems shown in movies like “Minority Report.” The technology will likely have impact far beyond video games like xBox and become integral to many other aspects of daily life. Here's more from Ashlee Vance at NYTimes.
See a demo video of Canesta's gesture recognition technology here. ...
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Posted on October 30, 2010
Reversing a longstanding policy, the federal government said on Friday that human and other genes should not be eligible for patents because they are part of nature. The new position could have a huge impact on medicine and on the biotechnology industry. Full story from Andrew Pollack NYTimes. ...
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Posted on October 29, 2010
October 29, 2010 - 23-year-old Emily Cummins re-invented the refrigerator in her grandfather’s shed, when she was in high-school. The 43F (6°C) temperature that it maintains helps people in various African countries like Namibia, South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe keep their food for longer without using any electricity or atmosphere-harmful gas. Basically, the device is made from two concentric cylinders, with some space between them. The inner one is made of metal, to be thermally-conductive, and the outer one can be earth pots and plastics. Sand fills the space between them, which the users impregnate with water that evaporates when ...
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Posted on October 28, 2010
The 15th Annual Independent Inventors Conference, co-sponsored by the United States Patent Trademark Office (USPTO), and Invent Now® will be held in Alexandria, VA at the US Patent and Trademark Office campus on November 4 - 5, 2010. A pre-conference workshop (November 3, 2010 from 5pm – 7pm) is included with your registration for anyone interested in learning patent basics and how they protect inventions. This workshop is for beginners and is a good foundation for the conference. Presenters will include the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the US Patent and Trademark Office, David ...
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Posted on October 24, 2010
George Darmis's eureka moment came when was repairing the fiberglass liner of a swimming pool and some overspray of the gel coat got on his flip-flops. The gel coat made the flip flops stick to his feet so that when he walked there was no flopping. “The comfort level was so incredible,” he said. “All of a sudden, I didn’t have to scrunch my toes to keep the flip-flops on. It’s so relaxing, it’s unreal.” He found some sticky material from 3M that renews its stickiness when it gets wet, mounted pieces to the heels of some flip-flops and voila ...
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Posted on October 24, 2010
George Darmis's eureka moment came when was repairing the fiberglass liner of a swimming pool and some overspray of the gel coat got on his flip-flops. The gel coat made the flip flops stick to his feet so that when he walked there was no flopping. “The comfort level was so incredible,” he said. “All of a sudden, I didn’t have to scrunch my toes to keep the flip-flops on. It’s so relaxing, it’s unreal.” He found some sticky material from 3M that renews its stickiness when it gets wet, mounted pieces to the heels of some flip-flops and voila ...
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Posted on October 17, 2010
Lawyers have found a new gold mine - digging for products marked with expired, erroneous and false patent numbers. It used to be that if a company had a wrong patent number on a product it would be subject to a $500 fine for all of the products it had mismarked. Now it may be subject to $500 for EVERY product that has been mistakenly marked. If a company sold a 1,000,000 units of an item with a wrong patent number on it that could mean a liability of up to $500,000,000. Half a billion dollars for what might have ...
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Posted on October 09, 2010
Rube Goldberg machines are the opposite of practical. They are just plain fun, taking the maximum number of steps to achieve a goal. See videos of some recent ones here. The popular 1963 board game Mouse Trap, as well as its sequels Crazy Clock (1964), and Fish Bait (1965) are based on Rube Goldberg machines. Some examples of Goldberg-inspired videogames are Incredibots, LittleBigPlanet, the 1990s-era series of The Incredible Machine games, and Crazy Machines. It is also possible to construct a Rube Goldberg Machine by using Garrys Mod, a game mod for Half Life 2 and other computer video ...
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Posted on October 07, 2010
Willy Wonka did it in a book and a movie. Now it may be possible in reality. Researchers say they may have cracked the secret to replicating the flavor of a 3-course meal in a single stick of chewing gum. Scientists at the Institute of Food Research (IFR) say that the latest nanotechnology could be used to turn Willy Wonka’s eccentric invention into reality - but without the unpleasant side effects. Nanotechnology, which deals with structures just millionths of a millimetre in size, could capture and release flavours in a precisely controlled way. Food scientist David Hart explains, "The ...
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Posted on October 07, 2010
Willy Wonka did it in a book and a movie. Now it may be possible in reality. Researchers say they may have cracked the secret behind creating replicates the flavor of a 3-course meal in a single stick of chewing gum. Scientists at the Institute of Food Research (IFR) say that latest technology could be used to turn Willy Wonka’s eccentric invention into reality - but without the unpleasant side effects. Recent advances in nanotechnology, which deals with structures just millionths of a millimetre in size, could capture and release flavours in a precisely controlled way. Food scientist David ...
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Posted on October 06, 2010
Discoverers of Graphene Win Nobel Prize October 6, 2010 - Konstantin Novoselov and his collegue Andre Geim were just awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of graphene. Graphene is a 1 atom thick wafer of carbon atoms that is as clear as glass and can transmit electricity. Its special properties could transform electronics, from solar cells to computers and sensors. Geim and Novoselov's breakthrough came in a deceptively simple experiment in 2004 that involved a block of carbon and some Scotch tape. The two used the tape to strip off layers of carbon that were only one ...
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Posted on October 01, 2010
October 1, 2010 - Peter Treadway's motorized shoe invention is a finalist for the James Dyson Award which will be announced next week. The motorized shoe looks far more useful than the Segway* and, significantly, will not require cities to be redesigned around it. Unlike the Segway this could actually be the beginning of a revolution in personal transportation. One thing is certain. If Treadway's shoe has commercial success there will be many imitators. Here's a video of a prototype in use. *The Segway is a masterpiece of innovation but it is an expensive and cumbersome solution to a ...
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Posted on September 27, 2010
Gene writes: Relate to your comment on a blog post for going after company number two, rather than, the #1 company in a particular field. While watching the movie, "Flash of Genius", it struck me that his biggest downfall was having a friend who was a big shot at Ford. Then, he tried to manufacture the intermittent wiper himself. Seems to me, he should have been looking to speak to the companies who already sell wiper motors to Ford or want to. My idea is big on the order of magnitude of the intermittent wiper. It is a Continuously Variable ...
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Posted on September 23, 2010
Dog poop is powering a light at a Boston area dog park as part of a demonstration project that its creator, artist Matthew Mazzotta, hopes will get people thinking about not wasting waste. The "Park Spark" poop converter comprises two steel, 500-gallon oil tanks connected by a pipe and attached to a gaslight-style street lantern. After the dogs do their business, signs on the tanks instruct owners to use biodegradable bags supplied on site to pick up the poop and deposit it into the left tank. People then turn a wheel to stir its insides, which contain waste and ...
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Posted on September 16, 2010
Next Steps After Patent Pending or Patented.If you are thinking about licensing, Invention City's Brutally Honest Review is a great next step - you will get great feedback and a possible licensing offer from Invention City itself.Once you have a patent application filed you are in a position to create a presentation and get feedback from people who might buy and use your invention. Strong survey results from a professional platform like SurveyMonkey can be a big help in getting interest from potential licensees and investors. Catherine asks:I made prototypes and gave them to a number of people with ...
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Posted on September 15, 2010
September 15, 2010 - An outgrowth of computer design driven rapid prototyping, 3D printing, is giving rise to a string of never-before-possible businesses that are selling prosthetic limbs, surgical and dental implants, along with phone cases, lamps, doorknobs, jewelry, handbags, perfume bottles, clothing and architectural models. And while some wonder how successfully the technology will make the transition from manufacturing applications to producing consumer goods, its use is exploding. Read the full story by Ashlee Vance at NYTimes. ...
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Posted on September 14, 2010
September 14, 2010 - Schutt Sports, an Illinois-based maker of football helmets and other sports gear filed for bankruptcy on Labor Day, a month after it was hit with more than $29 million in damages for violating a patent on helmets held by arch-competitor Riddell. Schutt was struggling prior to losing the patent case. Riddell will now have the field entirely to itself. Here's more from Ameet Sachdev Chicago Tribune. ...
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Posted on September 09, 2010
Alfrida asks: We trusted a company to submit our invention but now we feel alone and that nothing is going to happen. We paid them $13,000 and all they did was send 120 letters to the manufacturers. Seven letters came back to us because the address was incomplete or incorrect. We also asked to them to give us the production drawings but they want more money to give us that information. Now they said that the construction of the prototype will cost around $100,000. We feel that we were very naïve now think that they just stole our money and ...
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Posted on September 07, 2010
September 7, 2010 - At the age of three Sam Houghton of Buxton, England, was watching his father clean up leaves and fine debris with two different brooms when he came up with his idea - a double-headed broom designed to collect large debris and fine dust simultaneously. Sam's invention was patented and is now on display in an exhibition at the British Library. He is believed to be England's youngest ever patentee. Here's more from the Telegraph.
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Posted on September 07, 2010
September 7, 2010 - Plano, TX (PRWEB) - TelePresence Tech has been granted a US Patent for its invention of TelePresence Centers with capabilities of transmitting agents to appear at customer sites with eye contact for live two-way communication. Existing call centers with VOIP phone systems can upgrade to transmit IP video to be received by customers on computer monitors, laptops, video enabled tablets, home cable televisions and smart phones. Instead of having faceless communication by phone, companies can reach out to customers for face-to-face interaction in real time. In the five years since Duffie White, CEO of TelePresence Tech ...
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Posted on September 01, 2010
September 1, 2010 - Last Friday Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen filed lawsuits against 11 major internet search and e-commerce companies alleging that they have infringed on four patents held by Interval Licensing, a company that he owns. The eleven defendants are AOL, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo, and YouTube. Microsoft was not named. Interval Licensing holds patents of Interval Research, the former company founded by Allen and David Liddle in 1992 to perform advanced research and development in the areas of information systems, communications, and computer science. The patents in the lawsuit cover fundamental ...
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Posted on August 31, 2010
August 31, 2010 - Moore's law says that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit will double approximately every two years. Co-founder of Intel Gordon Moore described this trend in 1965 and expected it to last for ten years. But the trend has continued to this day and now we have multi-gigabyte memory cards as small as a pinky nail. How much longer can it continue? In today's NY Times John Markoff describes developments that could result in single chips that store as much as today’s highest capacity disk drives within five years ...
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Posted on August 27, 2010
August 27, 2010 - Nathan Myhrvold, the former Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft, is certifiably brilliant and undeniably rich. Ten years ago he founded an invention company called Intellectual Ventures. The home page of IV's website makes a big fat claim: "Intellectual Ventures is the global leader in the business of invention. We collaborate with leading inventors, partner with pioneering companies, and invest both expertise and capital in the process of invention. Our mission is to energize and streamline an invention economy that will drive innovation around the world." So I was surprised, to say the least, when I read ...
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Posted on August 26, 2010
August 26, 2010 - The patent system is messy, far messier than most inventors realize. Here's some perspective from Attorney Erik J. Heels. Written prior to the Bilski decision (which he feels was worthless) it's especially relevant for software and business method patents: Patent law is currently broken. Especially software patent law. A pending Supreme Court case (Google Bilski for more info) may fix it or make further break it. In short, you can expect to pay more for, wait longer for, and get less from your patents than you would have 5 or 10 years ago. Cost – At ...
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Posted on August 25, 2010
August 25, 2010 - The James Dyson Award, "seeks to single out the best in problem-solving student design" from around the world. The eventual international grand prize winner will be announced on October 5 and will receive more than $15,000, with another $15,000 going to the student’s university department. The fifteen international finalists will be announced on September 14th. See all of the entries here.
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Posted on August 24, 2010
August 24, 2010 - Last June the Supreme Court upheld a business method patent in the specific case of Bilski. The ruling gave hope to holders of business method patents who had feared that all such patents would be found invalid. Their worries are not over. On August 13, the first patent lawsuit to be decided in the wake of the Bilski decision ended decisively in favor of the defendants when a Los Angeles federal district court judge invalidated a patent on a method of online advertising held by Ultramercial LLC. The judge's dismissal of the patent—before claim construction had ...
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Posted on August 24, 2010
August 24, 2010 - Researchers in Japan have created a highly accurate sensor that can detect smells and gases using genetically engineered frog eggs. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Tuesday, they said they hoped to use the invention to design better machines to detect polluting gases such as carbon dioxide. More at Reuters. ...
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Posted on August 23, 2010
August 23, 2010 - Doug in Birmingham asks, "How do I get money to patent and prototype my invention?" This is a big question that every inventor faces unless he or she is independently wealthy. It goes to the heart of what's required to be successful. In the beginning stages it's easy to think big and find ways to spend huge piles of money. The trick is to find ways to advance your project inexpensively. My view is that until you've created a prototyope you haven't invented a thing. The first step in getting money is to make a prototype ...
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Posted on August 23, 2010
August 23, 2010 - Matt Reynolds, an assistant professor in the electrical and computer engineering department at Duke University, wanted a way to alert workers that dangerous equipment was nearby in the noisy environment of a construction site. He quickly came up with the idea of a beeper inside a hard hat. The trick was to find a way to make a beeper that worked without batteries. He's now done that with a prototype hard hat that uses radio waves to power a tiny microprocessor and beeper. The beeper gets all the power it needs from the transmitters on backhoes ...
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Posted on August 22, 2010
August 22, 2010 - Anthony Fejes recently received a software/algorithm patent. He has mixed feelings about it but does not believe that the entire patent system should be trashed. Here's a snippet:Ultimately, My own patent: I have seriously mixed feelings about the patents filed during my time at Zymeworks. In fact, they were filed slightly after I left, though I had put a lot of work into them before leaving, I was not the one to finish and file them. They may have even been a contributing part of my departure, as the investors probably perceived my distaste for software/algorithm ...
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Posted on August 20, 2010
August 20, 2010 - Japan's Intellectual Property High Court on Thursday ordered Sony Corp. to pay a former employee about ¥5.1 million ($60,000) for inventing a technology used in the PlayStation, reversing a lower court ruling that rejected his demand. Hidehiro Kume, 58, wanted ¥100 million for his invention of a small optical pickup used to play and record data on optical discs for the popular game consoles sold through 2003. Here's more from Japan Times. ...
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Posted on August 20, 2010
August 20, 2010 - Magnus Hammick wanted to listen to loud, crisp music from his iphone but couldn't find anything on the market that worked for him. In late 2009, Hammick developed a pocket-sized speaker that delivers room-filling sound with amplified bass when it's placed on a flat surface. He created the $80 WOWee ONE that connects to anything with a 3.5-millimeter audio jack and has a rechargeable battery for 20 hours of play. Since the product's launch about nine months ago, more than 150,000 WOWees have been sold. Hammick's success cannot be easily emulated by others. He had 1 ...
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Posted on August 19, 2010
August 19, 2010 - There is a growing movement against patents in general and software and technology patents in particular. The recent move by Oracle to sue Google is a case in point. Mike Masnick at TechDirt.com presents background for the prosecution, citing the story of how IBM sued Sun Microsystems for patent infringement long ago. In response to Sun's engineers saying that their patent claims were ridiculous, IBM's lawyers said: "OK, maybe you don't infringe these seven patents. But we have 10,000 U.S. patents. Do you really want us to go back to Armonk [IBM headquarters in New York] ...
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Posted on August 18, 2010
August 18, 2010 - President Barack Obama has signed legislation that will enable the the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to keep more of the revenue it generates from patent-filing fees. For years, the USPTO has been overwhelmed by a gargantuan backlog of unexamined patents, many of them for technology innovations. The under-funded agency currently has 1.2 million applications pending, of which more than 700,000 have not even been opened for preliminary examination. Cash generated by filing fees has previously disappeared into Federal funds and has not been kept by the USPTO. The new law gives the USPTO the ...
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Posted on August 17, 2010
August 17, 2010 - About a dozen years ago John Scott saw a Lexus sedan so overloaded that its tires cambered inward at the top. This gave him the idea for tires with built-in negative camber that would improve ride, lateral traction, fuel efficiency and tread life. In 1999 he received a patent 5,975,176 for “Tire having a constantly decreasing diameter." Last spring auto writer Don Sherman tested a prototype of Scott's CamberTires. Sherman was impressed: His prototype... demonstrated shorter stopping distances, higher cornering speeds and a markedly improved ride. The tires’ breakaway at the ragged edge of adhesion was ...
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Posted on August 12, 2010
Do you have a question about inventing that needs answers? Ask Invention City Founder Mike Marks. If he doesn't know the answer he'll try to find it out for you and answer it here. Just be sure you don't give away any confidential information with your question. ...
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Posted on August 12, 2010
August 12, 2010 - Amazon's secret Lab 126 has been looking into building gadgets beyond the Kindle that it could sell to consumers. Rumors have it that Amazon even considered making a music player and cell phone, but decided against it citing huge competition. Here's more from Ray Willington at HotHardware.com.
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Posted on August 12, 2010
August 12, 2010 - Reggie Hansen invented a sysrtem that enables you raise and lower the rear mud flaps on your truck with the flip of a switch. The invention is in the prototype stage. But that hasn't stopped Hansen from asking lawmakers in his home state of Wisconsin to get rid of the mud flap exemption for dump body construction trucks. Here's more from Neil Johnson at GazzetteXtra.com. ...
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Posted on August 12, 2010
August 12, 2010 - After you beat a game like Mass Effect 2, Apple wants to send you a comic book that re-tells your unique videogame story... and they've applied for a patent on the process. Here's more from Tom Goldman at EscapistMagazine. ...
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Posted on August 05, 2010
August 5, 2010 - One of the more interesting developments in the world of patents has been the emergence of a class of patents known as business method patents. these patents do not describe a mechanism of a machine or a process of manufacturing, they describe a series of steps used in conducting business. The most infamous of these patents is the patent held by Amazon.com for "1-click" buying which essentially patents the use of a shopping cart for buying things from a website. Amazon sued Barnes and Noble with this patent and licensed it to Apple. The incredibly broad ...
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