Indiana Inventors Association

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the THINKS you can think up if only you try!” - Dr. Seuss Oh, the THINKS You Can Think! Members met for informal discussion of various aspects of innovation. We discussed how the government is helping to finance inventors. 1. The state of Indiana supplements, and helps inventors obtain, Small Business Innovation Research ( SBIR ) grants. Rich Boling ( rboling@techshot.com ) of Techshot told us that the state of Indiana will pay someone, such as Elizabeth Brooke Pyne ( bpyne@iedc.in.gov ) of the IEDC SBIR/STTR Program Office or Heidi Platt of Platinum Grants & Proposals, LLC, up to $6,500 to help a first time SBIR grant applicant prepare an application. Contact Mr. Boling or the IEDC for more details. And consider attending the SBIR workshops offered by the IEDC (Indiana Economic Development Corporation). 2. Matt Thie mentioned that the state of Indiana encourages patent activity by allowing a tax exempt...

In developing a product from an invention (see the April 2008 post) you need to find an affordable, efficient, reliable manufacturer. Mr. Ron Read ( Global Consulting Partners, Inc. ) shared with us his decades of experience in helping U.S. inventors find and work with manufacturers and suppliers located in China. He also connects inventors with those located in India, Turkey, and Indonesia. Consider manufacturing in China if labor accounts for at least 20% of your manufacturing costs. The quality can be as good as you’ll find anywhere. The more you order, the better your price. For low cost items, plan on ordering at least 5,000 items/month; for items that cost $30 to manufacture, plan on at least 1,000/month. Items that cost at least $150 to manufacture can be ordered in less quantity. Savings can be considerable, with manufacturing costs often 10% of costs in the U.S. Before approaching a manufacturer, have an engineering firm prepare precise drawings of your invention, and c...

Ms. Carol Applegate (Director of programs and services, Business Ownership Initiative (BOI; not-for-profit partner of the Small Business Administration )) helped us understand that innovation is an interaction between thinking and doing. “An expert is a person who avoids small error as he sweeps on to the grand fallacy.” [Niels Bohr] What is the grand fallacy of innovation? It’s that we tend to mistake thinking for doing. Consider this trick question: 6 frogs are sitting on a log. One decides to jump off. How many are left? Answer: 6 frogs. Why? Because the one frog just decided to jump off; he didn’t do anything. Many inventors decide to jump into a business so they can turn their inventions into financial success. They decide to jump, but don’t. They stay on the log because they lack the strength of personal commitment to the effort of business, or they lack the grip of knowing how to start, maintain, and grow a business. BOI offers valuable yet inexpensive ($10; discounts av...

This month the Indiana Inventors Association met without a speaker to discuss innovation in general. People spoke about the current state of their creations (medical devices, segway-related items, books, etc.) and about their experiences in innovation. Special congratulations go to Ken Rainbolt for winning a people's choice award at a local convention for one of his segway inventions.

Mr. James Hill (a patent attorney with the Chicago law firm Wildman Harrold ) addressed two important questions many inventors ask - Is my invention patentable? Should I invest in a patent? The United States grants patents only for inventions that benefit our society. What is an invention? An invention is a means to a useful end. It is a machine, manufactured article, composition of matter, or method that has 3 aspects ( SOR ): structure, operation (function), and result. Deterministic relationships between those aspects integrate (combine) parts into a whole that is more than the sum of its individual parts. Parts of an invention work together to produce a useful result. A mere aggregate however is just the sum of its parts - an assembly of structures or method steps that do not cooperate to produce a useful result, something a tornado might put together (like a straw through a telephone pole). An aggregate is not patentable because it is not more useful than its independent (old) ...

“To see a world in a grain of sand And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour." - William Blake " Auguries of Innocence " An appealing industrial design helps an inventor persuade investors, marketers, and consumers of the value of an invention and convey important details of the invention to design engineers and patent agents/attorneys. Mr. Chris Stuart (of LUUR [a design and visualization firm]; formerly a senior designer for Thomson Consumer Electronics) spoke to us about the steps he takes to help inventors express their inventions visually, fully, and relatively inexpensively, and showed us some impressive examples of his work. 1. Chris first sketches (freehand and using a Wacom tablet ) the invention, focusing on concept and form rather than on production. CAD m odeling converts the sketch to a two dimensional illustration of the invention, to which forecasted colors are applied. Something as simple as your...