This section will be filled with blogs, newsletters and other information that may be of value to you.
Disclaimers:
The information contained does not reflect the opinion of the Minnesota Inventors Congress and is for general informational purposes only.
The names and contact information on this site are published to facilitate contact among those listed. It is not intended, and we request that it not be used, for commercial purposes.
Copyright: All content has been authorized, in writing by the author, for us to post the information on the site.
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Product Scout Letter to Inventors about his experience with Invention Promotions Companies
Click on the above link to read this letter about one man’s experience as a product developer with companies that advertise services to inventors on late night TV, radio and internet.
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Feb. 2008 – Reprinted with permission
Subject: Inventors Top Ten Most Common Mistakes and Tips to Avoid Those Mistakes
The most important investment an inventor can make is to learn how successful inventors get their marketable products into the marketplace and adopting an invention development process before you start spending money. Take a few minutes and read the list below and make sure you check off each of these items as you go through the process of taking your idea through those stages. Also remember to review this list occasionally.
On behalf of the Minnesota Inventors Congress, I want to thank Don Kelly for letting us share these tips with you. Last June, Don was in Redwood Falls for our 50th Anniversary. He reflected on the many times he visited the MIC over the years, going back to the early 1980′s when he was USPTO Chief of Staff. Don noted that he has always drawn inspiration from MIC’s steady leadership and ongoing passion.
“Inventor groups are difficult to initiate and even harder to sustain,” Don Kelly says, “so, the MIC, with its remarkable longevity and continued successes, clearly serves as a role model. I’ve made reference to the MIC in seminars from the US to Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.”
We appreciate Don Kelly’s efforts to help us educate inventors!!
Inventors’ Top Ten Most Common Mistakes & Steps for Avoiding Those Mistakes (From Don Kelly’s “TRACTION for the Inventors’ Rough Road to Market.” Don is a former USPTO executive, and now a practicing Patent Agent and co-founder of Intellectual Asset Management Associates, LLC (IAMA)based in Alexandria, VA) Link to this listing on the Internet: www.PatentAgentPlus.com
#1 STUBBORNLY INDEPENDENT ~ Often, Inventors are too independent and isolated, unaware of resources and networks. They mustn’t hesitate to seek advice, and never should ignore previous work of others in the same field. Networking may be the most important tool of all.
#2 BELIEVE SOMEONE ELSE WILL PAY ~ Inventors too often think they’ve done their part by dreaming up the solution to a problem. Others, they believe, will work tirelessly and without remuneration just to be part of the dream. Inventors must realize that the inventing step is often the easiest part of
the innovation process. They’ll need to take a team approach from that point forward.
#3 LACK INVENTION RECORDS ~ Inventors can be too lax about record keeping. In this business, the early dates of conception and invention development stages can be critical. Under present patent laws, inventors should have clear and witnessed journal entries. Keeping good records also helps the
inventor stay organized and self-directed in terms of timeliness and goals.
#4 WILL NOT LISTEN ~ Inventors commonly ignore feedback they don’t like. That’s why they talk only with friends and associates about their inventions. Those are the people who always will say “Your baby is beautiful.” They must step outside of their safety nets and seek the opinions of on-friends/relatives who indeed may point out: “Hey, this baby is really somewhat ugly.” If it’s broken, they need to know it…and need to fix it.
#5 EASY MARKS FOR SCAMS ~ Sadly, inventors are sitting targets for illicit businesses promising to patent and market any and all inventions (for a sizeable fee, of course). Invention Marketing Scammers are quick to profess: “Your baby is beautiful.” With those four words, they rake in more than $200
Million each year from people who can least afford it. The best advice where scams are concerned is the old saying: If it sounds too good to be true…”
#6 DON’T COMPLETE THEIR INVENTIONS ~ Inventors are almost always too quick to believe the invention is finished and beyond any improvement. This is never true. Being reluctant to work on the invention’s next generation, the inventor paves the way for those who can, and will. They should back off
from their “babies” and take a new perspective: How could it work better?
#7 TALK TOO MUCH ~ Premature public disclosures or sale offers may cause loss of patent rights and significant advantage to competitors. Inventors should secure their patent rights before talking to others, except under strict conditions of confidentiality.
#8 PROCRASTINATE ~ Just can’t get around to taking action on an idea. They too often don’t realize this until they’ve seen their invention on store shelves. This mistake can be avoided by good record keeping habits and by “doing”…rather than “talking.”
#9 WILL NOT PLAN ~ Most inventors recognize are late in recognizing they must have a plan. An invention is a business opportunity – - nothing more and nothing less. To seize the opportunity inventors need a technology development plan…and a business plan; and they need an infrastructure to
carry out these plans.
#10 IGNORE FAMILY ~ The Achilles heel for the ambitious inventor is inattentiveness to family and significant others who are, after all, their most important corporate assets. Friends and loved ones should be kept informed and involved in the dream. Life is what happens while great plans are made. At the end of the day, the memories we value are never about technical accomplishments or consummated deals.
Good luck.
Don Kelly
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17 Mistakes Start-Ups Make
John Osher, Inventor – SpinBrush Toothbrush
Mistake 1: Failing to spend enough time researching the business idea to see if it’s viable. “This is really the most important mistake of all. They say 9 [out] of 10 entrepreneurs fail because they’re undercapitalized or have the wrong people. I say 9 [out] of 10 people fail because their original concept is not viable. They want to be in business so much that they often don’t do the work they need to do ahead of time, so everything they do is doomed. They can be very talented, do everything else right, and fail because they have ideas that are flawed.”
Mistake 2: Miscalculating market size, timing, ease of entry and potential market share. “Most new entrepreneurs get very excited over an idea and don’t look for the truth about how many people will want to buy it. They put together financial projections as part of a presentation to pump up their investors. They say, ‘The market size is 50 million people that could use this product, and if I could only sell to 2 percent of them, I’d be selling a million pieces.’ But 2 percent of a market is a lot. Most products sell way less than 1 percent.”
Mistake 3: Underestimating financial requirements and timing. “They set their financial requirements based on Mistake 1, and they go ahead and make a commitment to this much office space and this many computers, and hire a vice president of sales, and so on. Before they know it, based on sales projections that were wrong to start with, they have created costs that require those projections to be met. So they run out of money.”
Mistake 4: Overprojecting sales volume and timing. “They have already miscalculated the size of the market. Now they overproject their portion of it. They often say ‘There are 200 million homes, and I need to sell [to] x number of them.’ When you break it down, though, a much smaller number of those are really sales prospects. That makes it impossible to make their sales projections.”
Mistake 5: Making cost projections that are too low. “Their cost projections are always too low. Part of the reason is that they project much higher sales. There are also unknown reasons that always come out that usually make costs higher than planned. So on top of everything, their margins are now lower.”
Mistake 6: Hiring too many people and spending too much on offices and facilities. “Now you have lower sales, higher costs and too much overhead. These are the things that you see every day in companies that fail. And they all grow out of that first mistake: failing to research the size and viability of the opportunity.”
Mistake 7: Lacking a contingency plan for a shortfall in expectations. “Even if you’re realistic in your estimates to start, there are things that happen when you start a new business. Your sales ideas may be no good; bank rates may go up; there may be a shipping strike. These aren’t the result of poor planning, but they happen. More often than not, entrepreneurs just feel that something will come along when they need it. They
don’t have contingency plans for it not working out at the size and time they want.”
Mistake 8: Bringing in unnecessary partners. “There are certain partners you need. For instance, you often need money, so you’re going to need money partners. But too many times, the guy with the idea takes on all his friends as partners. Many people don’t provide strategic advantages and don’t warrant ownership. But they’re all going to get 25 percent of the company. It’s totally unnecessary, and it’s a mistake. Before people
are made partners, they have to earn it.”
Mistake 9: Hiring for convenience rather than skill requirements. “In my first business or two, I hired relatives. It was easy to do, but in many cases, they were the wrong people [for the job]. And it’s hard to fire people, especially if they’re relatives or friends. More time needs to be spent handpicking people based on skill requirements. You really need super-skilled people who can wear more than one hat. It just bogs you down when you hire people who can’t do the job.”
Mistake 10: Neglecting to manage the entire company as a whole. “You see this happen all the time. They’ll spend half their time doing something that represents 5 percent of their business. You have to have a view of your whole company. But too often, the person running it loses that view. They get involved in a part, and they don’t manage the whole. Whether I do this product or that product, whether I hire somebody,
[I consider] how they [will] fit long term and short term in the big picture. Constantly try to see your big picture.”
Mistake 11: Accepting that it’s “not possible” too easily rather than finding a way. “I had an engineer who was a very good engineer, but with every toy we developed, he would say, ‘You can’t do it that way.’ I had to be careful not to accept this too easily. I had to look further. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re going to break new ground. A lot of people are going to say it’s not possible. You can’t accept that too easily. A good entrepreneur is going to find a way.”
Mistake 12: Focusing too much on sales volume and company size rather than profit. “Too much of your management is often based on volume and size. So many entrepreneurs want to say ‘I have a company that’s this big, with this many people, this many square feet of space, and this much sales.’ It’s too much [emphasis] on how fast and big you can build a business rather than how much profit it can make. Bankers and
investors don’t like this. Entrepreneurs are so into creating and building, but they also have to learn to become good [businesspeople].”
Mistake 13: Seeking confirmation of your actions rather than seeking the truth. “This often happens: You want to do something, so you talk about it with people who work for you. You talk to [your] family and friends. But you’re only looking for confirmation; you’re not looking for the truth. You’re looking for somebody to tell you you’re right. But the truth always comes out. So we [test] our products, and we listen to what [the testers]
say. We give much more value to the truth than to people saying what we’re doing is great.”
Mistake 14: Lacking simplicity in your vision. “Many entrepreneurs go in too many directions at once and do not execute anything well. Rather than focusing on doing everything right to sell to their biggest markets, they divide the attention of their people and their time, trying to do too many things at [one time]. Then their main product isn’t done properly because they’re doing so many different things. They have an idea and
say they’re going to sell it to Wal-Mart. Then they say they’re going to sell to [the] Home Shopping Network. And then the gift market looks good. And so on.”
Mistake 15: Lacking clarity of your long-term aim and business purpose. “You should have an idea of what your long-term aim is. It doesn’t mean that won’t change, but when you aim an arrow, you have to be aiming at a target. This [concept will] often come up when people ask ‘How do I pick a product?’ The answer depends on what you’re trying to do. If you’re trying to [create] a billion-dollar company with this product, it may not
have a chance. But if you’re trying to make a $5 million company, it can work. Or if you’re trying to create a company [in which] family members can be employed, it can work. Clarity of your business purpose is very important [but] is often not really part of the thought process.”
Mistake 16: Lacking focus and identity. “This was written from the viewpoint of building the company as a valuable entity. The company itself is also a product. Too many companies try to go after too many targets at once and end up with a potpourri rather than a focused business entity with an identity. When you try to make a business, it’s very important to maintain a focus and an identity. Don’t let it become a potpourri, or it
loses its power. For instance, you say, ‘We’re already selling to Kmart, so we might as well make a toy because Kmart buys toys.’ If you do that, the company becomes weaker. A company needs to be focused on what it is. Then its power builds from that.”
Mistake 17: Lacking an exit strategy. “Have an exit plan, and create your business to satisfy that plan. For instance, I am thinking I might run my new business for two years and then get out of it. I think it’s an opportunity to make a tremendous amount of money for two years, but I’m not sure [whether] it’s proprietary enough to stop the competition from getting in. So I’m in with an exit strategy of doing it for two years and then winding down. I won’t commit to long-term leases, and after the first year, we’ll start watching the marketplace very closely and start watching inventories.
The Minnesota Inventors Congress would like to thank John Osher for granting us permission to distribute this document to our clients. February 2008.
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Prep patents with reverse engineering in mind
John Cronin, Jed Cahill and Mike McLean
(06/08/2009 12:01 AM EDT)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217702117
Any company that files patents as part of its intellectual property strategy should be actively thinking about the end use of those assets. For business leverage, a patent holder must be able to demonstrate that a third party is using or has a desire to use the claimed technology. Therefore, any effort to maximize patent quality and value must consider the detection of third-party use of the patented technology.
A company that suspects a patent violation will often attempt to reverse engineer the product, service or technology of interest to confirm its suspicion. Though reverse engineering usually takes place after a patent has been issued, the process and capability can inform the patent development process at several early stages to help grow patent quality and value. By starting with the end–reverse engineering–in mind, you can enhance the patent development process to generate higher-quality patents that are easier to enforce. Here, we outline a best-practice reverse engineering process to provide the “end in mind” context for patent process enhancements.
1) Identify patents that are likely to be used by third parties and that are easily detectable when deployed in a product. Identifying patents for analysis requires individuals with knowledge of the technical innovations that are making it into end products in a given field, as well as an effective triage process to focus the list of patents for analysis by subject matter experts. The result is a list of strong patents whose claims will be the focus of the reverse engineering activity.
2) Find products, services and technologies that might violate your patents. In some fields, data exists that details the functions and features of particular products and technologies. This data can be related to the functions and features of your patented inventions to pinpoint suspect products.
3)Develop a set of priorities and a plan to address them. Use the product data you’ve gathered to create a matrix of products, services, technologies and companies vs. your patents. You can use the matrix to summarize for management the level of potential violation at each intersection. Based on the high-level business strategy that defines the markets, companies or products that are priorities for your organization, you can develop a plan to gather additional evidence.
4) Legally and cost-effectively reverse engineer the products. The reverse engineering results will act as evidence of use. Therefore, it is important to maintain proper evidence-handling procedures in terms of the chain of custody of the products under investigation and the ability to trace the reverse engineering analysis to the specific product. Some reverse engineering investigations are destructive in nature. Take care to minimize such destruction and to ensure that a sufficient supply of the product is on hand to complete the analysis.
The more complex the product or technology, the more difficult and costly it will be to reverse engineer, so focus reverse engineering on the patent claims identified in stage one, rather than pursue a broader investigation.
5) Relate product components to aspects of your selected patent claims. Here, the way you wrote the claim language in the first place becomes important. For example, if you are relating a third-party product to a structure claim, and the product locates Material A next to Material B, the potential degree of violation may hinge on how you specified the location of Material A in relation to Material B in your claim (e.g., “on top of,” “beneath,” “next to,” “adjacent to”).
6) Conclude on the potential violators and violation. After completing the reverse engineering analysis, you can revisit the matrix from step 3 to determine the strength of your position and whether further action or research is needed before pursuing claims against violators.
The conclusions drawn in the reverse engineering process not only inform possible plans for enforcement, but also suggest opportunities for strengthening your upstream patent development processes to produce higher-quality patents that are easier to detect and enforce.
Working backward
With the reverse engineering process in mind, key process enhancements can strengthen patent quality and value.
• Teach your inventors how to create detectable inventions. Facilitate open communications between your inventors and reverse engineering experts to drive growth in detectable inventions. Such communications might include formal inventor workshops about your reverse engineering process and about how to incorporate elements in an invention that facilitate detection. Include real examples of patents in your portfolio or in your field that were easy to detect as well as those that proved difficult to spot.
• Focus on creating inventions that are easier to detect. Proactively include reverse engineering as an input to your invention extraction and directed-brainstorming processes. This reinforces your inventors’ understanding of the types of inventions that tend to be easier to detect in your field.
• Add disclosure template questions to draw out detectable embodiments. The basic invention disclosure template can be strengthened with the addition of specific sections that ask the inventor to consider other ways in which components of the basic invention could be related physically and in time. Such input helps patent counsel develop high-quality patent claims that can maximize detected levels of violation. Also ask inventors to document how the invention could be reverse engineered in a product.
• Include reverse engineering expertise in the IP review process. Invite reverse engineering experts to meetings of your IP review committee to inform the assessment of inventions for IP documentation. These experts can offer specific recommendations for improving quality and detectability before filing patent applications.
• Support counsel to draft claims that are easier to detect. Patent attorneys are experts in writing claims, but field-specific and technology-specific advice from reverse engineering experts on how to draft claims for maximum detectability can be helpful. The information provided by your inventors further supports effective patent claim drafting.
• Include reverse engineering expertise in your invent-around process. Best-practice companies are proactive about analyzing their own patent applications to strengthen them against competitive invent-arounds. This process can be enhanced with input from your reverse engineering experts.
Reverse engineering is integral to your IP strategy–not only as a means for maximizing your return on your existing intellectual assets, but also as an input to more-targeted, more-effective creation of patents that are more supportive of your business strategy.
John Cronin is managing director and chairman of ipCapital Group Inc. and is the creator of its ipCapital System methodology.
Jed Cahill is a consulting manager at ipCapital Group. He has managed engagements for clients in a variety of industries, providing services that span the full IP life cycle.
Mike McLean is vice president of professional services at Semiconductor Insights. He was recently honored by Intellectual Asset Management in its list of the world’s leading IP strategists.
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To our inventors:
Please review this ebook and tweak it to fit your situation. Selling your idea to a prospective company takes planning and I felt that some of this information might be helpful for you to lay out the process in your mind of what you need to get across in those very important meetings you need to schedule.
Hi All,
I’m writing today to let you know about my new ebook on 5 Essential Strategies for Highly Effective Initial Meetings.
As you well know, it’s not easy to secure the full attention of decision makers – even for just a few minutes. When you have a meeting scheduled, it’s imperative to make the best use of this hard earned “window of opportunity.”
Whether you have 15 minutes for a phone conversation or 30 minutes for an online presentation, your prospect must feel like their time is well spent.
In order to make that happen, your initial meeting must be strategically designed for a lasting (and profitable) impact.
My new eBook shows you how to lead highly effective initial meetings that ultimately lead to sales success. In it, you’ll discover:
Why most first meetings fail miserably.
What it takes to really engage customers in the conversation.
How to flip your focus to what’s really important.
Strategies to enhance your credibility in just one meeting.
How to effortlessly advance to the logical next step.
…and much more!
Get your complimentary copy of 5 Essential Strategies for Highly Effective Initial Meetings now.
I hope you enjoy it!
Jill Konrath
Selling to Big Companies
www.sellingtobigcompanies.com
P.S. Please forward this to your colleagues who might be interested in learning more.
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WIPO Director General highlights Link between Innovation and Development
Geneva, September 20, 2010
PR/2010/660
Reprinted with permission. 9.21.2010
The role of innovation in promoting economic growth and competitiveness as well as the significant changes in the dynamic global innovation landscape were the focus of remarks by WIPO Director General in his opening statement to the annual meetings of the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which run from September 20 to 29, 2010. Mr. Gurry addressed his remarks to some 70 ministers who will be exploring the theme “Innovation, Growth and Development: The Role of Intellectual Property and Member States’ National Experiences” in a two-day high-level ministerial segment.
“Innovation is central to economic growth and to the creation of new and better jobs. It is the key to competitiveness for countries, for industries and for individual firms. It is the process by which solutions are developed to social and economic challenges,” Mr. Gurry told ministers. He noted that innovation is also “the reason why we have intellectual property” which provides the incentive for the significant “investment of time, effort and human and financial resources” associated with the process of innovation and its many benefits.
Mr. Gurry underlined the growing complexity of “the journey from idea to commercial reality” which had led to “a broadening of the understanding of what constitutes innovation. In addition to technology, it is increasingly acknowledged that organizational, marketing and design knowledge are vital to successful innovation. Intellectual property is also central to these other dimensions of the enlarged notion of innovation,” he noted.
The Director General underscored the changing geography of innovation within the dynamic global innovation landscape. “Both the geography of innovation and the means by which innovation occurs are changing, overturning many of our assumptions and expectations,” he noted. He said, “Trends in economic growth and patterns of investment in education and research and development make it clear that further continental shifts will occur in the world of innovation and that the map of innovation will continue to evolve.” Mr. Gurry also pointed to the emergence of “open innovation, where enterprises and institutions look outside themselves to satisfy their innovation needs” – a trend which has been fostered by the increasingly “networked and connected economy”.
These changes in the innovation landscape, he said, “have given more importance to WIPO’s role in developing and coordinating global infrastructure” which was “an increasingly fertile” dimension for effective international cooperation. Such cooperation offers an opportunity to increase the participation of the least developed countries and developing countries in global innovation and to reduce the knowledge gap. It also offers a “very effective means of improving both the efficiency of the work of patent offices in support of innovation and the quality of their output”, Mr. Gurry noted. WIPO has made considerable progress in the last year in enhancing the availability of knowledge and in contributing to the development of a global technical infrastructure. The Director General cited a range of public-private partnerships with publishers and commercial database vendors on preferential terms. He also noted that through the Stakeholders Platform, supported by publishers and the World Blind Union, plans are also well advanced for an ambitious arrangement for the distribution of published works in accessible formats for the visually impaired.
Mr. Gurry underlined the need to continue to improve the “essential support services for global innovation” that were offered by WIPO through its global IP systems – the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the Madrid System for international registration of marks, the Hague System for the international registration of designs and the Lisbon System for appellations of origin. He said “Protection for an increasing share of the world’s innovative effort is sought through these systems” which enjoy widespread and expanding membership, “reflecting their status as examples of successful international cooperation.” The Director General welcomed efforts by member states in working groups relating to these global IP systems “to invigorate each of these systems and to extend participation in them.” These services are also strategic assets as they generate over 90% of the revenue of the Organization and enable WIPO to offer a wide range of capacity-building and other development services.
In relation to progress in the development of the international legal framework, Mr. Gurry noted that thanks to broad-based engagement in these discussions, “While there is still much distance to travel, there are real possibilities of concrete progress in a number of areas, including access to published works on the part of the visually impaired, audiovisual performances, broadcasting, folklore and traditional knowledge, designs and trademarks on the Internet.” He said that the success of such cooperation is, to some extent, a test of the relevance of the Organization and multilateralism to the fast-moving world of innovation.
Mr. Gurry concluded by noting progress in the Organization’s Strategic Realignment Program and paid tribute to WIPO’s staff for “their dedication and service.”
For further information, please contact the Media Relations Section at WIPO:
Tel: (+41 22) – 338 81 61 or 338 95 47
Fax: (+41 22) – 338 82 80
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MIC Member Matt Butler. Press Release.
Air Force Officer and inventor Matt Butler, of Destin, FL, has filed for a utility and international patent for a sports game that he developed while flying over the Middle East. The game, ROLLORS® which is similar to bocce ball and horseshoes is handcrafted of classic hard wood. The game set includes 2 goals, 6 disks, measuring device and instructions. After long consideration over numerous licensing offers Matt signed his first agreement with a medium sized game company. Matt contributes his success to the numerous inventor organizations like Minnesota Inventors Congress (MIC) and originations like Edison Nation. Matt found these all volunteer organization in the back section of Inventors Digest magazine.
From the homepage: ROLLORS® is the latest yard game that can be played at a park, in the front or back yard of a house or just about anywhere where a relatively flat ground surface can be found. ROLLORS® is a game of skill that requires a modest level of physical activity and can be quickly varied depending on the age and skill level of the players.
An outdoor lawn game created by Florida-native Matt Butler is quickly becoming the hottest new item for family fun. Rollors combines the skill of bocce, horseshoes and bowling all in one game that is perfect for all ages. Played by hand rolling small wood disks towards a color-coded goal, the game creates some great fun in the sun.
“I wanted to create a fun game that gets families out of the house and enjoying some quality time together in the sunshine,” said Matt Butler, creator of the game. “This is a game that kids, parents, cousins and even grandparents can all enjoy together.”
Butler came up with the concept for the game while serving our country overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. During the down time while serving in the Gulf War, he had time to sketch the pieces, devise the rules and even brainstorm his own business selling the game.
“By the time I came back off of active duty I had the entire game ready to go,” Butler said. “What really amazed me is how fast the game really caught on.”
The game has taken the Florida Panhandle by storm and now orders are pouring from all over the country for the new hit game.
“People are enjoying it all over the country,” Butler said. “It makes a perfect family outdoor gift for the first day of Spring.”
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Nov. 13, 2009
Great news for Minnesota Inventors Congress exhibitor Tom Roering. Congratulations! His invention was selected as one of Time Magazines top 50 inventions. Here is the announcement we received this morning:
Hi Deb:
We hooked up with David Friedman last April, this came about as a result of one of your news letters. He sent the following update. Thought you might be interested how your organization makes things happen.
Thank you,
Tom Roering
troering@thewilcraft.com
Hey, Tom. I hope all is well with you. I have some news for you:
Time Magazine’s new issue is their annual “50 Best Inventions of the Year” issue. In conjunction with the magazine, Time.com has published an on-line gallery of nine inventors from my Inventor Portraits project. You are one of the inventors featured in the gallery. It just went live this morning.
Here’s a link to the main “Inventions of the Year” page, which has a link to the gallery: http://bit.ly/50inventions
David
–
David Friedman Photography
www.davidfriedmanphoto.com
917.214.7859
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November 5, 2009
Minnesota Inventors Congress Award Winner Pam Turner, Spiral Eye Needles, receives media coverage for her invention. View the latest story aired on WCCO TV: Click on the link:
http://wcco.com/video/?id=69771@wcco.dayport.com
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August 10, 2009 2008 MIC Inventor and award winner Pam Turner is featured on Nightline, on Saturday, August 8th, 2009. This is the email I received:
They showed a story that featured my Spiral Eye Needle on Nightline last night!
You can see it at http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/ and go to the segment called the father of invention.
Pam Turner
“The needle lady”
Inventor of the Spiral Eye Needle
763-208-2882
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Ritchie, Hitchcock Support Inventors & Entrepreneurs
at Minnesota Inventors Congress
“Entrepreneurship and innovation are cornerstones of our economy and of the Minnesota way of life,” said Mark Ritchie, Minnesota’s Secretary of State. “We need to do all we can to support Minnesota’s inventors and innovators as they bring new products to market, new ideas to our world, and income to families and communities here in Minnesota and across the country. An event like the Minnesota Inventors Congress, the world’s oldest inventor’s congress, right here in Redwood Falls, gives inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs the resources they need to succeed.” He added, “MIC is one of the premiere invention events in the country with exhibitors, product scouts and instructors coming from across the U.S. to help inventors get their products to market and establish their businesses.”
The 52nd Annual Inventors Congress on June 12-13, 2009 in Redwood Falls is the world’s oldest annual invention convention and one of the premiere events of its kind in the United Sates. Inventors, entrepreneurs, product scouts, service providers and aspiring entrepreneurs come to Minnesota to find resources, education, tools and contacts to make them more successful.
At the Invention and Idea Show 2009, inventors showcase their products or prototypes to consumer audiences, product scouts, distribution experts, marketers and resource providers. Participants can attend Inventing Success™ Workshops to learn critical information—how to get their products to market; refine their product or invention; protect their intellectual property; access needed capital and resources; the business basics; when to move forward with an invention; and how to effectively network.
A Featured Presenter this year is author, speaker and entrepreneur Terry Hitchcock. Terry just released his new book, “A Father’s Odyssey” and is the author of the very popular “American Business: The Last Hurrah?” Later this year, a documentary telling Terry’s life story called “My Run” and narrated by Academy Award Winner Billy Bob Thornton will be released, followed by a feature-length film called “Pushing Life”. Terry is a sought-after national speaker and will present “As the world turns … an inventor’s opportunity” on both June 12th and 13th at 1:00pm as an MIC featured event. Terry will also sign copies of his book.
A treasure of the Minnesota Inventors Congress is its long time commitment to Inventors young and old. Young Inventors exhibit their product ideas and inventions and participate in special activities. Don’t miss the Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame exhibit where visitors can walk through the history of Minnesota inventions. The exhibits profile inventors of past decades all with meaningful contributions to society.
While the Show is a fantastic family activity, it is strategically designed for inventors, innovators, entrepreneurs and professionals who serve them. MIC is a unique environment that blends a casual atmosphere with a serious, professional agenda. MIC is all about intellectual property and those who are stakeholders in that world. MIC is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and is volunteer-driven.
May 19, 2009
Invention & Idea Show™ 2009
Inventions and ideas, essential for the economy’s recovery, will be featured at the 52nd annual Minnesota Inventors Congress being held at the Redwood Area Community Center in Redwood Falls, MN on June 12 and 13, 2009. Along with inventions by adults and students, the show has added additional family activities for children and parents to enjoy. Between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. each day visitors have an opportunity to view new inventions and ideas, attend workshops on inventing, view Tatanka Art exhibits by area artists, and talk to patent attorneys and other inventor resource professionals.
Minnesota manufacturers are encouraged to attend the Inventing Success™ workshops on Friday, June 12 if they are interested in learning how to acquire new products to drive growth in the slow economy. Inventors with prototypes or ideas are invited to exhibit and receive assistance with their invention and discover the public’s opinion. It is an opportunity for inventors and manufacturers to meet and learn how to work together for a brighter economic future.
April 22, 2009
For Immediate Release:
Inventors –early bird rate for invention expo available through May 15th!
The most important investment an inventor can make is to learn the product development process and finding out if there is a market for your product is an essential part of that process. Since 1958, inventors from across the country have traveled to Redwood Falls, MN to test market their products and attend our Inventing Success™ Workshops. Inventing is about change and improving people’s lives and change is evident in the current economic environment. Inventors – reserve your booth today to find out if there is a market for your product. Don’t miss this chance to lock in the early bird rate before May 15th to be a part of this years’ Invention & Idea Show™ at the 52nd annual Minnesota Inventors Congress event , on June 12 & 13, 2009, at the Redwood Area Community Center. Manufacturers – make plans to attend the event to see if any of the inventors products match your manufacturing capabilities.
For further information call
800.468.3681 or email info@minnesotainventorscongress.org
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MicroBusiness News Brief
Policy Matters: Who Do You Trust?
a weekly column
by Dawn Rivers Baker
Sometimes, people make me tired.
One of the things I’ve been watching that makes me really, really tired is the level of fear- mongering and deliberate misinformation being spread around in an effort to defeat the current proposals to reform the health care system.
As much as I generally enjoy political theater, this stuff is just no fun at all to watch.
That is especially true when anti-reform protesters yell racial epithets and homosexual slurs at members of Congress, and even spit on them as they walk to a meeting at the White House.
The disrespect is bad enough. But the hypocrisy is mind-boggling. Just imagine how that crowd would react if matters were reversed, and members of their party were subjected to that sort of treatment by protesters.
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Last Minute Survey Says Micros Dislike Health Reform
On the eve of the House vote that finally sent sweeping health care reform legislation to President Obama’s desk, the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) has released the results of a member survey indicating that lawmakers have been getting it wrong from Day One. For example, while almost eight in ten microbusiness owners (77.6%) said that it is very or somewhat important for our health care system to be reformed, most microbusiness owners (60% of them) disapprove of the way Congress is proposing to make those reforms. An important part of that disapproval is that 74.2% of them do not feel that lawmakers took microbusiness concerns into account when drafting legislation (more research finding that microbusiness owners believe policy makers generally ignore their issues and concerns). Perhaps the most interesting set of questions in this survey had to do with priorities. NASE researchers asked respondents what was most and least important to them in health care reform.
The top policy objective for health care reform among microbusiness respondents was lowering costs and cost containment (42%), followed reforming the market to keep individuals from being denied coverage due to health status or age (24%) and increasing choice in health plans and benefits options (16.4%). Interestingly, that third-place policy objective was also the top response for least important policy objective among microbusiness owners (32.4%). Also at the top of the list were covering the uninsured (29.3%) and improving health care delivery systems for better outcomes (25.4%). Among those who oppose the plan, 58% said the government would be too involved in health care and another 23% expressed concern about the cost of the plan and the federal budget deficit; researchers did not ask proponents any questions about their main reason for supporting the reform proposal.
Focus on Jobs Leaves Micros Out
It’s difficult to think back this far but, a couple of years ago, when then-Senator Barack Obama was on the campaign trail, one of the ideas he touted to support small businesses and help the economy was a national network of business incubators. Fast forward a year and a half or so, and there hasn’t been much noise out of the Obama Administration about business incubators since the 2008 election. But, just because President Obama has other things on his mind right now doesn’t mean the idea has entirely gone away. Last week, the House Committee on Small Business convened a hearing to look into business incubators specifically in the context of the way in which they can help to spur job creation. And, in spite of Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez’s (D-NY) observation that microbusinesses by themselves created one million jobs in the wake of the 2001 recession, it quickly became clear that the focus on job creation would leave microbusinesses in the shadows during this heari ng.
One prominent witness was Dr. Robert Strom of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, who gave members to understand that you need to focus your efforts on the fast growth gazelles if you want to spur job creation. This is not to say that business incubators are useless for microbusinesses. On the contrary, the suite of services they generally offer are just the sorts of assistance that microbusinesses need in order to beat the failure rate numbers. However, if lawmakers are going to be so thoroughly focused on job creation that they will attach incubator funding to programs that service high growth firms, that could be bad news for both microbusinesses and for the thousands of American communities that are better suited to developing a local economy without the gazelles. That said, business incubators are another development resource that certainly deserves more attention and could perhaps be added to the SBA arsenal. At the moment, there is at least some bipartisan support fo r the idea.
Patent Reform Attempts Can Be Read Both Ways
The Senate Judiciary Committee, under the auspices of Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT), has been working on patent reform legislation for about a year now and, earlier this month, Chairman Leahy announced that a compromise had been reached with Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-AL). You might expect that to be big news for microbusinesses, nonemployer businesses and/or individual inventors, all of which are regularly either swindled or outspent out of their intellectual property rights. But the very provisions that lawmakers inserted in order to make it easier for the little guys to challenge patents filed by the big boys are being decried by small business advocates as bad policy because they make it easier for the big boys to harass the little guys. Top on the list is the push to move the U.S. patent system from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file system.
Smaller inventors often shop their inventions in search of financing or attempt to test the market before they invest in costly patent filings, according to microbusiness advocates, and the new system would place them at a disadvantage. There is language in the reformed reform bill that mandates patent filing fees be reduced by 50% for small entities and by 75% for micro-entities but that does not seem to have made the advocates feel any better about the first-to-file provisions. In response to all this uncertainty, last week Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chairwoman Mary Landrieu (D-LA) introduced the Small Business Patent Data Collection Act (S. 3089), which directs the SBA Office of Advocacy to conduct an impact study on how small businesses fare under the new system. The bill has been referred to Landrieu’s committee; it currently has no co-sponsors.
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January 8, 2009
Innovating through Recession: When the Going Gets Tough: The Tough Innovate. (Here’s how and why they win.) Andrew Razeghi. Kellogg School of Management.
According to Andrew Razeghi: I wrote the following article to lend both inspiration and pragmatism to the current economic conditions. The evidence speaks for itself: there is no better time to innovate than now. If you’d like to learn what great innovators do in times of economic turbulence, I think you may enjoy the piece.
Moments of economic turbulence provide the unique opportunity to start new businesses, launch disruptive new products, and strengthen customer loyalty – often at a discount. During Challenging times,
here are a few pointers on what to do, why to do it, and what to avoid. When the going gets tough, the tough innovate.
I want to thank him for granting us permission to provide a link. At his blog, just click on the link in the upper right corner: Innovation through recession……
www.andrewrazeghi.com/blog
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January 28, 2009
Click on the link below to read the statute authorized by the Minnesota Legislature addressing invention promotion companies operating in the state of Minnesota:
