The Inventors
It takes a lot more than a great idea to
take a jury-rigged tool from the jobsite to a shelf at The Home
Depot. Just ask these guys.
By
Rich Binsacca
Walk onto just about any jobsite and you're likely to find a tool
that won't be on any shelf in any store. It's a tool of invention,
born of necessity and forged by a blowtorch or welding iron in
someone's shop, or held together with bailing wire or duct tape
from the trailer. It's a one-of-a-kind solution to a singular
problem on an anywhere jobsite. Chances are, that's as far as it
will go.
But
then there are guys like Larry Martin, a railwork carpenter who
fashioned a new tool that takes the guesswork out of staircase
layouts. Or Stephen Gass, a former patent attorney and lifelong
woodworker with a Ph.D. in physics who used a hot dog to stop a
saw blade in 10 milliseconds.
Inspiration
and Perspiration
The
fact is, less than 3 percent of the 350,000 patents issued last
year by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, much less those
imagined on a lunch break or lashed together on a tailgate, ever
made it to the market. Even fewer will recoup the money their
inventors have invested.
Tough
odds, however, are hardly a detriment to tool inventors.
"I've never been able to work it where I sell an idea to
someone who'll pay me or make money for me," says Brian
Giffin, who has three tools in various stages of retail
availability. His Jack Rabbit combination drill-screw bit, for
instance, is currently waiting for an infusion of cash to help
push it into the mainstream marketplace.
Giffin
and others like him have realized that inspiration for a new tool
is about 1 percent of a long and arduous process. "The amount
of time and documentation is amazing," says Martin, who
licensed his AccuMark tool to L.J. Smith, a national stair parts
supplier. "There were moments I thought, 'I don't need this
aggravation.'"
Gass,
in fact, quit his job as a patent attorney to apply his
woodworking passion and doctorate in physics full time to SawStop,
a finger-sensitive brake system for power saws. "Our original
plan was to license the technology [to saw manufacturers], not
create a new tool company," he says. After three years
pursuing that plan without success, Gass has been meeting with
potential investors and manufacturers to help launch a line of
SawStop-equipped power tools.
A
Long and Winding Road
Regardless
of its inspiration, a new tool idea must weave its way through
several stages of refinement, drawings and prototypes, patent
protection, frustration and hope, and pursuit of partners,
investors, lenders, potential customers, engineers, licensees, and
manufacturers, among others, on its way to the shelves. "It's
an unbelievable process," says Martin.
When
a sub approached Harold Rodenberger with an idea for a one-man
panel-lifting device, the Seattle-area contractor's first
inclination was to contact a patent attorney. With a provisional
patent secured at a cost of about $80, Rodenberger and his
inventor-partner, Jan Urbanovic, have one year to apply for a full
patent while pursuing manufacturers or entrepreneurs to buy their
Lever-Lift tool.
Most
inventors follow the same path of pursuing patent protection
before exposing their idea to others, especially manufacturers,
and developing market awareness and demand while refining their
inventions.
With
patents pending, for instance, both Gass and Giffin exhibited and
demonstrated prototypes of their respective tools at national
hardware shows to boost exposure and interest, while Martin hired
an engineer to build a prototype.
Robert
Davies, a framing contractor who invented a set of aluminum racks
to hold a flat stack of plywood on a pitched roof, drafted a usage
manual and product labeling in addition to finding a source for
remnant aluminum stock, leveraging land holdings for investment
cash, shooting a promotional video, and launching a Web site.
"I've built up a network of sources after six years of doing
this," he says.
False
Starts with Manufacturers
Attracting
the interest of manufacturers is arguably the most wearisome leg
of the journey. "It took six months just to get a reply from
[one tool manufacturer], and that was with a patent," says
Martin, who then spent two years negotiating with L.J. Smith for a
licensing agreement.
Gass
went back and forth with a major power saw manufacturer for more
than a year before the company told him it wasn't interested, and
he has demonstrated the SawStop at trade shows and in boardrooms
to almost every other tool maker. "As a safety feature, we
got a lot of attention early, but it ultimately made it harder to
sell," says Gass, largely because of product liability issues
and high retooling costs required to incorporate his idea into
existing lines of power saws.
Economic
viability, in fact, is one of three initial criterions that
Barbara Davis, inventions coordinator for Black & Decker and
its DeWalt affiliate, looks for first among the substantial number
of tool ideas submitted to the company every year. "In
addition to novelty and some relation to our core business, an
idea has to be economically viable," she says.
Out
of a thousand submissions, Davis says, perhaps 100 get a second
look, with 10 or so moving on to one of the company's tool
development teams and one or two of those entering negotiations
for a licensing, buy-out, or royalty agreement with their
inventors. "It's a pretty steep fallout, but it does
happen," Davis says.
Asking
for Help
Despite
independence matched only by their persistence, most of these and
other tool inventors have not embarked on the journey to
commercial availability alone. Gass, for instance, took two other
patent attorneys with him to develop SawStop, while Davies is
looking for a CFO-type to manage the financial end of his High-Jax
venture, and he took on a partner to run his framing business so
he could focus on the invention. "If you're in a position
where you don't have the time, funds, or ability to communicate,
you need to find someone to do it for you," Davies says.
Licking
their collective chops for such an opportunity are myriad
invention submission consulting firms. Often criticized for their
willingness to take on any crackpot idea for a few hundred bucks'
fee--with much more out-of-pocket as their services mount--such
companies represent thousands of inventors nationwide.
"People want to take their idea to market and are looking for
options and to learn about the process," says Melinda Miller,
an associate with Invention Submission Corp. (ISC) in Pittsburgh.
In
its brochure and other printed and online materials, ISC reports
that 55 of its 5,681 paying clients between 1999 and 2001 received
licensing agreements for their inventions, while 15 (a mere
one-third of 1 percent) have received more money than they paid to
ISC. "We're realistic about the length of the process and the
potential for payback," Miller says.
Eschewing
such pursuit of his product and his pocketbook, Martin instead
joined a local inventor's association chapter, where he can get
free advice from invention veterans and network with vendors,
consultants, and others. "It's by far the most valuable
resource I found," he says.
Payback
With
ideas that have the potential to save time, money, and even human
flesh on the jobsite, none of these inventors have yet to earn
back even close to what they've invested in their respective ideas
to date.
Far
from discouraged, however, they look for rewards in addition to a
financial windfall. "We've spent more than a million dollars,
not counting our time, but it'll be worth it if this product is on
every power tool in five years," says Gass. "This is
important enough technology that should be out there."
Money,
of course, still drives most inventors, but those who have gone
through the wringer come out a bit more realistic, if still
hopeful.
While
Rodenberger and Urbanovic wait for a white knight to buy their
idea, Giffin hopes to rekindle the Jack Rabbit with an investor or
have a marketing score akin to getting tool guru Norm Abram to use
it on The New Yankee Workshop. "I've never encountered
a buyout option on any of my ideas," Giffin says. "My
goal has always been to make money with it."
It's
a vision shared by tool manufacturers. "The ultimate question
is, how do you convince a potential buyer that your idea is better
than all the others and will help them make money?" says
Rodenberger. "It's like getting them to buy a lottery
ticket."
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