Indiana Inventors Association

Never be satisfied with anything, everything can be done better than it is now being done.    — Eli Lilly, Jr. RonJackson (president, Jackson Systems; longtime member of the Indiana Inventors Association; and holder of several patents) left his HVAC company and inventing long enough to share his unbridled enthusiasm for them with us.   “Controls Done Right”— his company’s trademark—conveys Mr. Jackson’s inventive spirit.   Here are some of Mr. Jackson’s suggestions for inventors and innovators. Inventing If you can, invent for contractors or original equipment manufacturers .   You won’t spend time and money educating them on the value of your invention; they already know.   Keep your inventions simple so that users will like them. Look at items or methods throughout your day and ask: What’s wrong with them?   How can I improve them?   Write down your answers so you don’t forget them. Develop a portfolio of inventions...

Joshua Springer (president, GrinOn Industries , Indianapolis) had a eureka moment at his father’s birthday party when he imagined a beer container that would fill from the bottom.   Four days later he had a prototype.   Eight years and two U.S. patents later ( US8763655 , US8777182 ), the worldwide market for his invention provides an estimated annual revenue of $10-20 million. Televised interviews with CNN and Inside Indiana Business have showcased Mr. Springer’s pioneering and “paper clip simple” beer dispensing system.   In its most prevalent mode, a nozzle pushes up a detachable magnet from the bottom of a plastic cup, fills the cup with beer, and retracts as the magnet seals the bottom of the cup.   This highly efficient automated system wastes no beer (in contrast to most dispensing methods that waste 30%) and dispenses beer 300 times faster than is typical with traditional methods.   Because of his invention, the number of people in line ...

If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else. - Yogi Berra Are you spinning your wheels?   Only dreaming instead of also doing?   Taking decades to do what can be done in months?   If so, you are not alone.   A lot of folks, including inventors, let life pass them by.   Life is too precious for that. Setting goals can help you live a full and exciting life, which includes bringing your inventions to market.   Richard McVicker (member of the Indiana Inventors Association for more than 40 years, patent illustrator at Barnes & Thornburg LLP for 49 years, and patent-holding inventor for 55 years) told us how.   Try it; you’ll like it. A goal is a specific, attainable, and major accomplishment that you crave with your whole being.   Want it so badly that you imagine it with all of your senses.   Figure out: what you want and when you want it; who will benefit from it; and what you will do and whe...

80% of success is showing up.   — Woody Allen Erik Magner, PhD (president, Meister Cook) and BetsyMagner (marketing manager, Meister Cook) issued a charismatic call to inventors — Don’t be afraid.   Find your passion and use it to start your own business.   Using their own success story to inspire us, Mr. Magner shared a 6-part strategy that helped them create in less than 10 years a 2-person company ranked by Inc. 5000 as the 41 st fastest‑growing company (2 nd fastest‑growing manufacturer) in the United States. Identify an important technical problem that you care about. William Osler (a founder of modern medicine) advised physicians, “ Listen to your patient; he is telling you the diagnosis.”   Likewise in industry, listen to the experts; they will tell you what problems are commercially important.   Mr. Magner’s first challenge in the food industry was a client’s request for a more heat-efficient hamburger broiler.   The broiler he...

Though she be but little, she is fierce.   — Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame Who would have thought that a small nonprofit organization in Carmel, IN could unlock the secret to preventing chronic malnutrition worldwide?   Glenn H. Sullivan, PhD (chairman/CEO Quintessence Nutraceuticals, Inc.; co‑founder, Sustainable Nutrition International ; senior partner, Intermark Partners Strategic Management, LLC; professor emeritus, Food Science Institute, Purdue University; recipient, USPTO Patents for Humanity Award ) told us how he and his co-inventors (U.S. patent US8,945,642 ) became alchemists by learning how to turn trash into treasure. An estimated 925 million individuals were malnourished in 2010.   One third of the children in developing countries (and many in Indiana) suffer from chronic malnutrition, a condition that kills them or prevents them from becoming independent adults.   Malnutrition could be prevented with rice, a cereal g...

[ Thanks to Dave Zedonis for this article ] All inventors need prototypes of their inventions.   Members of Club Cyberia—Mark Owens (marketing director; marketing@clubcyberia.com.org ; 317-721-2582), his son Austin (events director), and David Norris (equipment director)—let us know about their maker space: a facility equipped for making prototypes inexpensively.   There, do-it-yourself people meet each other and use available tools and work stations to build, collaborate, invent, and learn.   The club is open to members 24 hours every day and offers a tour of the facility to the public on the first Saturday of each month or by appointment. The facility (7,300 square feet for work and meetings) offers an independent inventor the opportunity to develop and build a detailed prototype of an invention.   Available equipment includes hand tools; drill presses, milling machines, lathes and (soon) a press brake; a full set of wood working equipment; 3-D printer...