Research Can Sweeten Invention’s Appeal

A suspiciously sweet Diet Pepsi from a local Del Taco gave inventor Paul Nicholas the idea for a device that would alert calorie-conscious consumers if a soda fountain drink sold as sugar-free wasn’t.

Nicholas hopes his hand-held invention, a type of refractometer that indicates the presence of sugar, also will interest diabetics and conversely people who don’t mind sugar but want to avoid diet drinks because they believe artificial sweeteners are unhealthy.

As a mechanical engineer, Nicholas had the skills to clear the patent and prototype stages of his invention with relative ease. It has been more difficult for him to figure out how to get the lipstick-size gizmo into the hands of consumers. Like most inventors, Nicholas is unfamiliar with licensing, marketing and distribution.

“The actual commercialization is a major new direction,” Nicholas said. “I have a little trepidation about how to find the right path or the right licensee.”

Before he starts knocking on the doors of potential licensees, the Burbank resident needs to get a clearer picture of the commercial viability of his product, according to several new-product professionals. Specifically, Nicholas needs to answer this question: Are there enough consumers who would buy the item at a price that will cover its costs and generate sufficient profit?

It’s a step too many product developers skip.

“Back at the concept state is the time to get these analyses,” said Murray Ansell, president of ThinkUSA in Glendale. “Otherwise, you can spend years going down a blind alley.”

Nicholas can’t turn back the clock to November 1995, when he and his wife lunched at Del Taco, but he still has time to gather the market information needed to attract a licensee.

It was at their lunch four years ago that his wife, unhappy about possibly having slugged down a 200-calorie drink without knowing it, asked whether there was a scientific way to tell a diet soda from a regular one, which is typically 12% sugar. Consumers can’t always rely on labels, especially if the drink is from a soda fountain machine. A restaurant worker might punch the wrong button while filling a cup or hook up a canister of diet soda syrup to the wrong spout. Taste can vary if a drink’s mix of syrup and seltzer water is thinned on purpose or by accident.

Nicholas recalled that grape growers used large, expensive instruments to measure sugar content to one-tenth of a percent. Perhaps a consumer-friendly version was possible.

“I reasoned if all I wanted was an indication [of sugar], I could make the thing a lot simpler and a lot less expensive and probably a lot more compact,” Nicholas said.

Armed with supplies from a hobby store, Nicholas, a consulting engineer who earned previous patent credits working at Lockheed and other companies, eventually created four prototypes. In January, he received Patent No. 5,859,696 for his invention. To use it, a drop of soda is placed on the face of a prism inside the device. A lid is snapped shut, and one looks through an eyepiece at one end. If no light shows, the beverage is sugar free. If one can see light, sugar is present.

Nicholas did some testing, turning up another restaurant that served mislabeled sodas. He passed his prototypes around to friends and surfed the Internet for information. He found out that sales for diet and diabetic products were huge. He learned there would be FDA hurdles to clear if he marketed the device to diabetics. And he got raves from family and friends.

That’s about as far as most individual inventors get. But it’s usually not enough to impress a potential licensee. Whether he does the necessary market research himself or hires someone to do it for him, solid data that support his product will give Nicholas a better chance at landing a qualified licensee.

“The more market research he’s done, even if it’s a preliminary investigation, the more seriously he’ll be taken,” said Milissa Rick, program manager of the Wisconsin Innovation Service Center in Whitewater, Wisc.

If the research doesn’t support a product, an inventor can modify the invention or, if necessary, abandon it and try something with more market appeal. That’s why it’s wise to spend time gauging commercial viability as early as possible.

That task can be broken down into several basic parts, including establishing need, checking out the competition, exploring technical feasibility and researching costs.

Nicholas has established the technical feasibility of his invention. Less clear is whether consumers feel they have a need for it.

Just because family and friends rave about a product doesn’t mean it will sell. They aren’t always being honest, according to Gerald Udell, a marketing professor who has developed the Preliminary Innovation Evaluation System for individual inventors. He recommends that inventors take a disinterested approach when asking consumers and potential corporate buyers for their candid opinions.

“One thing he must not do is disclose that he is the inventor,” said Udell, founder of the Innovation Institute, a partner with Southwest Missouri State University and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in the Wal-Mart Innovation Network.

In addition to asking whether someone would buy a product and at what price, Nicholas can learn more about consumer buying trends by doing focused market research on the Internet or at the library.

He can find out about key players in an industry, the potential competition, recent new product releases and industry reports. Internet search programs such as https://www.goto.com or reference librarians can help dig up the names of trade journals, industry directories and industry associations in a target market, as well as useful Web sites.

Trade shows are another source of up-to-date information about a target industry.

Market research also can help an inventor learn about the distribution chain in an industry and how much each link will add to the cost of a product, Ansell said.

A patent, a working prototype and market research that answers the commercial need/cost/feasibility questions will give Nicholas an attractive package to offer potential licensees. Whether he can tear himself away from his workbench long enough to do the necessary market research is a question he knows he still has to answer.

“Engineers are just inclined to tinker with something indefinitely,” Nicholas said.

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If you’ve had success licensing your invention, we’d like to hear from you. Write to us at Mind to Market, Business Section, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053. Or send e-mail to cyndia.zwahlen@latimes.com.

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Resource List: Wal-Mart Innovation Network

A low-cost, new-product evaluation program established in 1991 by the Innovation Institute, Southwest Missouri State University and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

* (417) 836-5671

https://www.wal-mart.com/win

https://www.innovation-institute.com

Wisconsin Innovation Service Center

A nonprofit technical and market assessment service of the University of Wisconsin and the Small Business Administration since 1980.

* (414) 472-1365

https://www.uww.edu/business/innovate/innovate.htm

Other Ideas

Inventor Paul Nicholas recommends “Patent It Yourself,” by patent attorney David Pressman (Nolo.com, 1999).