Link to the UIA Inventor Blog

The UIA is a large organization with over 12,000 active members, a staff of people, and dozens of volunteers. We depend on the support of good companies to help offset the free educational programs we offer the inventor community, and few support the UIA as much as Russ Williams and his staff at Invention Home.

The 2012 International Home + Housewares Show opens Saturday, March 10th in Chicago, Ill. This year’s show is expected to be bigger and better than ever.

I would like to thank our VIP sponsor, InventionHome for all of their help and support in pulling together this year’s events including the Inventors Corner featuring over 50 exhibitors and a special opportunity for inventors to pitch directly to a panel of QVC buyers at the show – QVC Sprouts. This hotbed of activity is known as the InventionHome Inventors Corner and you can stop by to see all 50+ exhibitors including Russ and his staff from InventionHome, who will be exhibiting in booth N-7371.

I am also pleased to announce that the Inventors Corner has moved into its new "home" in the North Hall and will be bigger and more exciting than ever.

If you would like more information on how InventionHome can help with your invention visit - www.inventionhome.com or www.matchproduct.com

Our staff works very hard to bring inventors valuable and relevant information through our educational programs. We had arranged for Ron Popeil to speak at this year's International Home and Housewares Show inventor area on Sunday afternoon. However, Mr. Popeil was forced to reschedule because of an unforeseen family commitment.
We are fortunate to have a legend in our industry take his place.
In addition to his many years of successful direct response campaigns, his appearance on the ABC show Shark Tank, and his continuous and generous support of the inventor community - Kevin Harrington is simply a very kind man.
The UIA, and the inventors who attend his presentation “How to Turn Your Idea or Product Into a Multi- Million Dollar Success” Sunday afternoon (at 3:45 in the inventor area of the North building at MacCormick Center) will see both the talented businessman and the kind supporting Mr. Harrington as he explains the ins and outs of product development and answers your questions about how best to travel your journey of invention.

Kevin Harrington, chairman and founder of TVGoods, Inc., is widely acknowledged as a pioneer and principal architect of the infomercial industry.

In 1984, Kevin produced one of the industry's first 30 minute infomercials. Since then, he has been involved with over 500 product launches that resulted in sales of over $4 billion worldwide with 20 products that reached individual sales of over $100 million.

Kevin founded Quantum International, Ltd. in the mid 1980s, which merged into National Media Corporation in 1991. Under his leadership as President, National Media reached $500 million in annual sales, distributing in over 100 countries and 20 languages. This company’s success has been chronicled in a case study at Harvard/MIT for over a decade.

Kevin was also CEO of several other entrepreneurial companies including HSN Direct, a joint venture with Home Shopping Network, in 1994 and Reliant International Media in 1997. Reliant International Media was sold in 2007.

Throughout his career, Kevin helped to establish two of the most important and recognized global networking associations: the Entrepreneur's Organization, or EO (formally known as the Young Entrepreneurs’ Organization) and the Electronic Retailing Association, or ERA. Today, the EO has 113 chapters in 38 countries and more than 924,000 members. The ERA represents the $125 billion electronic retailing industry and is comprised of over 450 member companies and subsidiaries that use the power of electronic retailing to sell directly to consumers via television, radio, Internet and wireless media in over 100 countries worldwide.

Due to his extensive resume, Kevin was selected as an investor "Shark" on the ABC television series Shark Tank produced by Mark Burnett. The show gives budding entrepreneurs the chance to pitch their products to a panel of acclaimed judges in hopes of turning their ideas into a successful business reality. He recently released a book entitled "Act Now: How I Turn Ideas into Million-Dollar Products" that chronicles his life and experiences in the DRTV industry.

Star of the food networks newest show about inventing Steve Greenberg will be attending the housewares show along with the production staff from Lucky Dog productions.
If you haven't seen this show the premises is very simple. Steve travels the country looking for new kitchen related product inventions. When he finds them he helps the inventors work on the design and development of the invention before taking them to Warren Tuttle at Lifetime Brands.
Lifetime Brands is the largest non-electric kitchen products manufacturer in the country. With brands such as KitchenAid, FARBERWARE, MIKASA, Cuisinart, and Pfaltzgraff it's easy to see why. Warren, in addition to his duties with the UIA, is also the inventor liaison and new products evaluator for Lifetime Brands.
In the show’s pilot (aired last fall) Steve traveled around the country to inventors homes looking at products they felt would be a great match for the handheld kitchen products market. Now the show has been picked up for six more episodes so Steve and his team are on the hunt once again.
At the international home and housewares show the team hopes to find some inventors whose products could go all the way to retail with the help of Warren and his team of development and distribution experts.
So if you see Steve, Warren, or a guy with a camera stop and say hello it could just be your chance to meet a star.

Well, it's housewares week. The International Home and Housewares Show 2012 kicks off in Chicago this Saturday at noon.
Hosted by our friends at the International Housewares Association - This massive display of housewares professionals takes up one of the largest exhibit spaces in the country. From the newest items in cleaning, to cutting edge kitchen tools, flatware, dinnerware, and maybe even underwear, this show has everything.
The UIA inventor’s area sponsored by Invention Home promises to be one of the highlights of the show - featuring over 50 inventors, review panels manned by industry professionals, inventor education events, the QVC buyers panel, a private inventors tour of the show, and question and answer sessions by professionals from all over the industry.
Dozens of people have been working very hard for several months to bring inventors a meaningful and educational program that will provide you networking opportunities within this multi-billion dollar industry.
Look for more information this week about the inventor events planned for the show as we draw closer to one of our industry’s largest events.

innovation (a theory or idea) and Inventing (proof of a theory or idea) are often evolutionary processes. Many well know inventions like the telephone, the automobile, and the light bulb have all taken on changes as they adapt to the times and the effect of other technologies -the wheel is no different.

According to archaeologists, the wheel was probably invented around 8,000 B.C. in Asia. The oldest wheel known however, was discovered in Mesopotamia and probably dates back to 3,500 B.C.

This wheel was believed to have been made by the Sumerians. It was made of planks of wood joined together. The picture below briefly describes the stages of development of the wheel.

Stage one: Early men placed rollers beneath heavy objects so that they could be moved easily.

Stage two: Early men began to place runners under a heavy load, which they discovered would make it easier for the load to drag. This was the invention of the sledge.

Stage three: Men began to combine the roller and the sledge. As the sledge moved forward over the first roller, a second roller was placed under the front end to carry the load when it moved off the first roller. A model of a sledge with such rollers is in the Smithsonian Institution.

Stage four: Soon, men discovered that the rollers which carried the sledge became grooved with use. They soon discovered that these deep grooves actually allowed the sledge to advance a greater distance before the next roller was needed to come on!

Thus, in Stage five: The rollers were changed into wheels. In the process of doing so, wood between the grooves of the roller were cut away to form an axle and wooden pegs were fastened to the runners on each side of the axle. When the wheels turn, the axle turned too in the space between the pegs. The first wooden cart was thus made.

Stage six: A slight improvement was made to the cart. This time, instead of using pegs to join the wheels to the axle, holes for the axle were drilled through the frame of the cart. Axle and wheels were now made separately.

The wheel was furthered improved on later by the Egyptians, who made wheels with spokes, which could be found on Egyptian chariots of around 2000 BC. Over in Ancient India, chariots with spoked wheels dating back to around 1500 B.C. were also discovered. The Greeks too, adopted the idea of wheel-making from the Egyptians and made further improvements to it. Later, during the time of the Roman Empire, the Romans too engaged themselves in wheel-making and produced the greatest variety of wheeled vehicles - Including chariots for war, hunting, and racing, two-wheeled farm carts, covered carriages, heavy four-wheeled freight wagons and passenger coaches.

Ok, I was 12….I didn’t actually invent “the” skateboard. I invented a version of the skateboard for my older sister Susan.

As you would know from reading these silly childhood stories about my wacky adventures, I have an older sister named Susan. Susan is a doctor of Psychology now living in Denver Co with her two beautiful little girls. But back in 1974, Susan was a trusty sidekick willing to get involved in almost anything I happened to be dragging her into at the time.

So when Susan saw one of the kids on the block who had a “board with wheels” rolling down the street she asked me if I could make her one - I of course said Yes.

Simple enough, back then we had roller skates that were all metal. They had an adjustable rail to fit them over your shoe and that’s what we skated with. Susan donated her set of skates and I found a board in my Dad’s pile of woodworking lumber (I had no idea it was oak) and I set off to the garage to fashion my older sister a skateboard.

First, I had to cut the board into a shape that loosely resembled a long rectangle. Then, it was all about “Modifying” those skates. Off came the straps, and the metal slide – a very large hammer would help me "convince" the metal brackets to lay down and be quiet – and they did. Some screw assembly and a few nails and it was ready for a test ride.

I called Susan out to the garage to test out her new skateboard. She was so excited that she jumped right on. The board promptly slid out from under her feet and she hit the floor with a loud “thump” followed quickly by an ear piercing scream the likes of which I have not heard again to this day. My Father came running out of the house, quickly assessed the situation to make sure Susan was ok - then looked directly at me. With a glaring “not again” stare he proceeded to pick up the Skateboard and with one swift and powerful swing broke it in two over the workbench....he was really mad.

Ok, so I got grounded – again. I’m not sure how it happened, but in addition to my traditional post invention grounding, I had to cut the grass for two weeks to earn enough money to buy Susan a new pair of skates.

Life is simply not fair sometimes – but somehow the experiences make it worthwhile.

HELLO!...It’s me – I’m an inventor. I’m brilliant, and creative, and I have the next HUGE product the world is going to fall in love with. Why wouldn’t you want to talk to me?
Because you are a nut case…that’s why
Well, maybe not you personally, but that’s the reaction most of us get when we approach companies and tell them who we are. It’s not their fault really; after all, we as an industry come by it honestly. We have some real nut jobs amongst us and we have to own them the same as we get to own the success stories like Edison, Fuller, and Marconi.
Over the years industry has formed a not so good opinion about inventors and been forced to erect processes for dealing with us. Non confidentiality agreements, black hole submission process, and of course voice mail, have all been very effective tools at insulating the corporate world from the inventor - But why?
It doesn’t really matter why – because to answer that means we have to look back, and the inventing industry has spent far too much time looking back. What matters is that we recognize its happening and we resolve ourselves as an industry to changing the perception companies have of us. How you ask? Well it starts with a few simple realizations you should always remember when dealing with companies.
1. You are not “entitled” to anything. You may be smart, you may be creative, but you are not entitled. The people in that company have worked hard to get where they are and they expect you to as well.

2. You are a guest in their world and you want something from them – be humble

3. Industry respects people who have done their homework and presented the results honestly – you don’t have to know all the answers, but you do have to have at least tried to answer some of the questions.

4. I don’t care what your dog told you – your wiz-bang idea is not really worth a trillion dollars, everyone is not really going to buy 10 of them, and the corporate world has no idea how well hotcakes sell. Set reasonable expectations.

5. Respect that they are working within a process and give them the time to do it. Don’t call every day, or email them incessantly – just let the process work. If you are as smart as you think you are, and your product is as good as your family told you it was, the system will work for you.

6. Rejection is not failure. There are a lot of reasons a company may not take a product idea from an inventor. Most of them are simple, like, they have others they devoted resources to developing. It doesn’t fit with the direction they are taking their product line, or even it simply can’t be made the way you invented it. Take the information and use it to become a better inventor.
So when you call a company with your great idea, and they dodge you, or lie to you it’s the long term effects of the industry as a whole. We all earned it at some point or another, but the question is what did you do today to change it?

When we first get a new idea we always want to tell people, We’re excited and we feel really smart, and we just know what we came up with is going to change the world! For the most part telling people in your immediate family and very close friends about your invention is normally pretty safe. What you need to stay away from is telling people just for the sake of telling them, or showing people in ways that it could be classified as disclosure - Like trade shows, posting it on a forum, or at a large inventor's meeting.

When you are ready to branch out and start talking about it there are 3 basic levels of protection you may want to make sure you have in place first.

An Inventor's Notebook. This is a simple thing you can do to document the date of invention. It should be in a bound notebook consecutively numbered. The section of the book with your idea should be signed and dated by two disinterested witnesses stating “witnessed and understood.” The notebooks would be required to be presented to the USPTO to prove the date of invention. Make sure you notarize your signature for each idea area in the book.

A Non Disclosure Agreement: (NDA) this is a document signed between two parties that forms a letter contract stating the receiving party will not disclose what he/she was told about the invention. This is significant because an NDA is enforceable the moment it is signed, and violation of an NDA is a violation of Trade Secret laws. The theory is simple, the person you told could not likely develop your invention without disclosing the details to another party, by doing so they would be in violation of the NDA.
A Provisional Patent Application: This is NOT a patent. This is a very basic patent application that is filed with the USPTO establishing the date you invented (or filed) your product/idea. It only has a 12 month life, and then must be replaced with a normal patent application so timing is important.
As you can see from the time you develop an inventor’s notebook you enjoy some level of protection. Each step you take after that is like building the fortress a little higher.
It has been my experience that you are pretty safe telling people in your local circle about your invention once you have a properly documented inventor’s notebook. In most cases with a strong notebook and an NDA you can approach some companies to “test the waters”. But if you’re going to go full force trying to sell your ideas for license you should really invest in a PPA before you get too deep into the process.

We all know there are clouds, and we all know that many inventors often live with their head in them, but what do they mean when they talk about computing in the clouds?

At its most basic level, the "cloud" is simply the Internet, or the vast array of servers around the world that comprise it. When you hear a digital document is stored, or a digital task is being performed in the cloud, it means that the file or application “lives” on a server you access over an Internet connection rather than on a local device like your computer itself.

This is really nothing new. For years, there have been services that would back up your files to a distant server over the Internet or keep your photos online. And Web-based email programs, like Yahoo Mail or Hotmail, are familiar examples of cloud-based applications. These programs live on servers, not your PC, and you access them through a Web browser.

What is new is the trend being created by hardware that in many ways forces us to use the “Cloud” instead of storing things on our own equipment. There are several new computers coming out that have as little as 16 Gigs of storage – about the same as two cell phones. This lack of storage will simply force the user to store in the cloud rather than their hard-drive.

Is this good or bad for inventors? I guess that depends on how you feel about the security of the cloud, and other people’s ability to access the information you load onto it. It could be notes about your invention, or drawings, or even a list of inventions you are working on. All stored in a place none of us really know called a "Cloud"

I don’t know that I would ring the alarm bells just yet, but I would know it’s happening around you, and you may want to do a little homework on the security issues associated with this rapidly growing trend. After all, it's your data, you should know where it lives.

It’s true – you are in aisle 12 and you are talking to a box – having a conversation in fact. You know you do it, we all do What I’m talking about is the conversation that you have in your head with the package or product you are about to buy. I’m not crazy, think about it for a second.

You: Hmmm….what one do I want?
The Products: Me, you want me, and me, no…me!
You: Ha..this one looks good
The Product: That’s right, I do look good, I appeal to you
You: but what can you do for me?
The Product label: I can do this, and this, and this…..and even this
You: but how much will you cost me to do those things?

Okay, you get the point. We have these conversations each time we purchase a product. It’s the core of the buying decision and the most important thing a product inventor can understand about the end game. By truly understanding this conversation happens, and how to hold your own in it – you can invent to your consumer.

One of the most debated topics in our industry is that of being “taken” by a service provider. Sure, there are some bad companies out there, but there are also some really good companies – our industry is no different than any other.
These companies are simply tools you choose to use or not in helping you get to the market - but they’re not the only way to get there. I thought I would take a moment and explain the three roads all inventors choose from when they have that great idea and they want to get it on a store shelf.

First- They have what they think is a great idea and they do nothing with it, living the rest of their life planning or hoping until one day they see it on a store shelf and BAM – now their mad because they thought of it first.
Second – They hire a company to guide them on the journey. The mistake they make here is not doing their homework and not defining what they get for their money. In the end the company could be good or bad, it doesn’t matter. Simply don’t give them money until you know what you are getting in return. If what you are getting feels like a good value then hire them. But check with other companies and compare price and services before you go off and spend the 401K. You may find this hard to believe but the average inventor (best we can tell) spends about $12,000.00 on this method – and yes for some that’s a good experience and for others it’s not.
Third – The inventor gets this crazy idea that they are all of a sudden business people. They start down the path of building the idea into a product and then the product into a business. Believe it or not this is where most people really get ripped off. They come across dozens of people they need to hire one by one to move down the road. They hire the web guy, the package guy, the patent guy, the manufacturing guy, the consultant guy, the sales rep guy…..all with their hand out, all taking your money one small purchase at a time. When you finally get your head out of the clouds and ad it all up you have spent far more than what you would have spent with most invention companies. In fact, the average inventor blows about $75,000.00 using this method and we've seen them lose as much at $2,000,000.00 - I don't think you could actually spend that much with an invention company.
So what’s the common denominator between One, Two, & Three? It’s that 95% of the time all three roads lead to the same place – Failure.
It doesn’t have to be that way, it just normally is. The reason is simple and easy to correct. You have to educate yourself on the processes before you start down any road. It’s when you have an educated grasp of what you are about to face that you can figure out not only where you are headed, but what to anticipate on your journey.
If you fail to prepare, you should prepare to fail.

From the time we’re young children we’re taught about math. We see math in almost everything we do from grocery shopping, to our jobs, to managing our checkbook. So it should be no surprise that as inventors we can use math to express the concept of customer value.
Many inventors feel that inventing is simply problem-solving, and at its core it very well may be. However the greatest invention in the world without a path to society is simply just a good idea. It is that path to society that separates the invention from the idea and fulfills the goal of helping people.
It could be said that the amount of help and invention provides may be expressed as “consumer value”. That is, the overall value to the consumer of the problem your solution (or invention) addresses.
To understand this expressed in a mathematical presentation we can use the equation “Customer Value = Quality - X – Convenience - / - Cost”
We know that as consumers we’re always concerned with quality simply because it represents longevity and repeated cycles of use. On the other hand as inventors we understand one of the greatest contributions of our inventions are the conveniences they offer to the user.

However, neither Quality nor Convenience can be offered without Cost. As a consumer suffers cost they look to quality and convenience in an effort to justify their expenditure. That customer justification is described in the term Value.
As inventors (especially product inventors) this relationship between Quality, Convenience, and Cost is something we should be thinking about very early on in the inventing process. In fact, It is one of the most important principles in guiding us towards inventions that have commercial viability.

Several years ago when I was helping inventors on some of the now infamous inventor forums, a very nice lady from Texas approached me and ask for help. Her name was Lesia Farmer and she had ideas coming out of her head like lava flowing from a volcano. The problem was they were not very good ideas. In fact it wasn't Lesia’s ideas that would ultimately make this Texas housewife successful as an inventor - Not her early ideas anyway.
Lesia had two things vital to the success of all inventors. She was humble enough to learn and tenacious enough to do. This blend of natural traits combined with education of the process and the respect of some professionals led Lesia through the inventor’s rite of passage we all know as really stupid ideas, to the promised land of commercial success.
For Lesia that commercial success came after several years of discarding impractical ideas until she found the one that fit. Almost like a graduation present, her Trap Door Colander proved to be the culmination of her efforts as it resulted in a massive Wal-Mart order and placement in several major retailers.
I'm very proud of the work Lesia put in, I'm very proud of her accomplishments, and I'm very proud to call her a professional inventor.