Startup Essentials: The road from invention to household name can be long and rocky

Sycamore resident Emily Hummel remains upbeat, despite the long hours, piles of paperwork and about the $10,000 she’s spent during the past seven years as she’s worked to bring her big idea to market. Hummel invented a discreet wrapper to dispose of feminine hygiene products in 2001 and has yet to sell her idea to a manufacturer or marketer. KATE WEBER CARLSON | kcarlson@daily-chronicle.com

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It's a common dream. One day, you'll invent “The Next Big Thing.” You'll get a patent, they'll sell like crazy, and you'll make millions. It could happen. But not overnight. “The process began for me in 2001, and I'm still looking for licensing. This is not something to do if you're looking for quick results,” Sycamore resident Emily Hummel said. In 2001, Hummel invented a discreet wrapper to dispose of feminine hygiene products. Her patent was granted in 2004, but she has yet to sell the idea to a manufacturer or marketer. “Once there's an invention, you need manufacturers. But they're not sold on it without a market survey,” Hummel said. “I kind of feel like I went through business school getting my patent.” Expecting a quick, easy route from concept to market is one of the common pitfalls inventors encounter, said Deanne Casey, a market research manager with the Wisconsin Innovation Service Center at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. “People have to understand this is a long-term project, and it takes a lot of hours and some money out of your own pocket to bring it to fruition,” she said. Patents can cost thousands of dollars in government and legal fees, and are no guarantee an invention will ever hit the market. “Once you get the patent, most people think that's when you're done. But there's still sourcing, tooling, marketing - you still have 75 percent of the job left to get it to market, and most inventors aren't salesmen,” said Brian Neidigh of Leland. Neidigh is an engineering consultant who, among other things, designs prototypes for new inventions. He holds several patents on products he helped to design, including some sold by Pampered Chef. Neidigh suggested inventors search the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's online database for similar ideas and spend a few thousand dollars to get a prototype made. Then the inventor has something concrete to take to potential buyers and gauge market interest. “Don't go all gung-ho until you know there's a market,” he said. “You need to see if people are interested in your idea.” In some cases, like an employee who has an idea to improve his company's product, it can be cheaper and easier to make the idea a trade secret and just hide it from competitors, rather than get a patent, which is a public document, he said. Designing and tooling a prototype can be a learning process, he said. It can be thrilling to see a concept come to life, but it's also where many inventors become overwhelmed by the cost and complexity of manufacturing. Neidigh said one inventor he worked with had an idea for a product to secure landscape timbers. While the home improvement stores he took the prototype to liked the idea, they weren't willing to pay enough to cover the manufacturing costs, he said. Casey warned that inventors can sometimes be an easy mark for scams as well. Fly-by-night companies offering everything from market studies to guaranteed licensing can draw in frustrated people overwhelmed by the process, she said. “It feels like playing the lottery. I could see how people could get caught up in, ‘Just one more try,'” Hummel said. “There's a real opportunity here for people to get their hearts broken and their funds stripped away.” Hummel has spent about $10,000 in the past seven years on her invention, including patent and legal fees and a failed licensing attempt. Considering some companies charge as much as $30,000 for an attempt at licensing, she doesn't think she's done too badly, she said. Casey suggested inventors seek the support of a small-business development center at the state or local level and said entrepreneur networks can provide valuable support as well. “People become so attached to their invention they don't want to listen to thoughts that could improve it,” she said. “There are a lot of resources at the state and local level that can help you establish networks.”

Patent facts
A patent is a property right the federal government grants an inventor to prevent other people from making, using or selling the invention in the United States. The patent offers protection for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention. But not every idea qualifies for a patent. Among the things that cannot be patented: •Laws of nature •Physical phenomena •Abstract ideas •Inventions that are not useful •Inventions that are “offensive to public morality” •For a complete list of what can and cannot be patented go online to http://www.uspto.gov

Source: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office