Great Idea Is Only the First Step in a Successful Invention : Patents: For those who try to market their own creations, there are pitfalls at every point along the path. But some have made it pay off--in a big way.
Tomima Edmark used her head before investing her money. Like other inventors, the woman behind the Topsy Tail hair tool turned a patent into profit.
The former International Business Machines Corp. saleswoman dreamed up the hair device that flips a ponytail inside out while standing in line with her mother to see a movie. She made a prototype that night and filed for a patent two months later, adding it to her patented clothes hanger and place settings.
Her investment of about $40,000 in the simple wire gadget has so far reaped millions in profit. “I’ve never been really good at investing in the stock market,” said Edmark, 38. “Who better to invest in than yourself?”
Still, turning a new-found device into a well-needed product can be as difficult as inventing the light bulb. Even after the creation is complete, it must be patented to give the inventor exclusive rights to make and sell the product for years to come.
Simply filing for a patent costs about $1,000, said patent lawyer Peter Trzyna of Keck, Mahn & Cate in Chicago, and many applications aren’t accepted the first time around. Maintaining exclusive rights for the patent’s life can cost another $3,000.
A patent lawyer can ease the process for between $3,000 and $15,000, depending on how complicated the invention is and how good the lawyer is. The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office in Arlington, Virginia can help with its pamphlet on patent-law basics, and a list of qualified lawyers and agents.
Without a patent, though, an investment in an invention can be inviable. Take Stanley Mason, who said he invented the sticky tabs on disposable diapers only to earn a $50 reward while the company he worked for raked in the profits.
That prompted Mason 30 years ago to go into business for himself. The 73-year-old inventor, who started at age seven by making a fishing lure out of a clothes pin, now holds 57 patents on adhesive bandages, fingerprinting systems and other designs through his own company, Simco Inc.
Mason said his $3,500 investment in microwave cookware alone has yielded “several million” since the 1970s. “No one believed people needed microwave cookware, but I did,” he said, “The only way an individual inventor can survive is to work for himself and take clients.”
There are a few tips every inventor should know even before filing for a patent. Establish the invention’s date of conception by writing down the idea, making a detailed drawing and dating it in front of a witness--preferably not a family member or potential investor, said Robert Lougher, president of the Inventors Awareness Group Inc. volunteer group.
Once the idea is recorded, the creator can’t wait longer than a year to patent the design. Sarah Greenwood, 24, no longer qualifies for a patent for her idea of gloves that double as mittens, because she waited too long to apply for a patent. Greenwood also gave some of the gloves as Christmas presents--another way to lose legal exclusivity.
That said, less-experienced inventors can determine the merit of their creations without forfeiting the rights to a patent. Companies such as Innovation Assessment Program in Seattle, the Wisconsin Innovation Service Center and the Missouri-based Wal-Mart Innovation Network--a subsidiary of discount retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc.--charge from $175 to $295 to assess the viability of inventions and offer suggestions.
Some inventors, though, have been bamboozled by promotion companies that charge thousands of dollars and deliver only empty promises. Joy Lovern, a security guard in Oakland, sold her 1968 Mustang convertible and mailed the proceeds along with her life savings to the National Ideas Center in Washington, according to Lougher.
Lovern gave the invention promotion company $3,400 to patent and market her nontoxic flea repellent only to find out similar products in other countries ruined her chances for a patent. And she didn’t get a refund.
Inventors unschooled in the ways of manufacturing can also lose money by trying to mass produce their inventions alone. The less-risky route is to license the rights to a company that manufactures and sells the product for a percentage of the take. “Our opinion is that the vast majority don’t have the expertise to go into business,” Lougher said.
Inventors can browse through stores to find items similar to those they hope to sell, and then write a brief letter to the manufacturer to gauge its interest level. Be sure to enclose a self-addressed envelope.
“Investors are usually shocked at the amount of responses they get,” said Lougher, who credits a smaller defense budget to greater manufacturer interest. “Now is the time to sell a new product, because companies are trying to diversify.”
Veteran inventor Mason, for instance, recently licensed the patent on a flower box to a California company for 7.4% of the wholesale price. “It’s not very much,” Mason said. “But it can be spectacular when the volume is up.”
For others, inventions are the mothers of necessity. After Edmark was laid off from IBM, she used her $25,000 severance pay to manufacture and market the Topsy Tail. Following rejections from hair product companies Goody Products Inc. and Riviera Holdings Corp., she paid an engineer $7,000 to design the mold.
Her first four full-page ads in hair trade magazines cost just $2,000--cheaper, she said, than a postage stamp-size ad in the back pages of Glamour or Vogue. She started selling the hair tool through mail orders, covering manufacturing costs with customer checks as they came in. Her cleaning lady helped stuff envelopes.
Edmark eventually sold the Topsy Tail in Texas department stores and through TV ads, discovering she sold more product when people saw how the doohickey worked. Now that the TV route has been exhausted, Topsy Tail is sold only through retailers such as Walgreen Co. and Eckerd Corp.
About seven million Topsy Tails--and an estimated $100 million later--Edmark is glad she did it on her own.
