The Nevada INVENTOR
Official newsletter of and by the Nevada Inventor's Association
Volume: XVII No. 1 -Education, Assistance, and Networking for the Inventor- January 2005
Next Meeting: February 26, 2005 9:00 AM Washoe Medical Center Room cr101
Our web site is 'www.nevadainventors.org' Founded in 1988
We are a 501(c)6 group under IRS rules.
The purpose of NIA is to educate inventors and potential inventors through whatever means available, including regular meeting, classes, seminars, workshops, and evaluations, within NIA or in cooperation with other persons or organizations. The education of inventors, or potential inventors, may also include the publishing of written materials, such as a regularly published newsletter, flyers, notices, or letters.
Additional goals of NIA are to inform its members of private, civic, governmental, and public resources which may be of assistance to inventors; to promote a positive public image of inventors; to provide for its members a referral/resource directory; and to furnish assistance to its members, whenever possible, by directing their efforts toward the successful development of their inventions.
Presidential Considerations
By Len Swietzer
First, it is of the utmost importance that all those faithful NIA members through the course of 2004 be recognized and be commended for their kind indulgences and quiet tolerance of the various Rube Goldberg contraptions and contrivances deployed in what should otherwise properly be about the serious business of furthering the rare, exemplary, and too often, unappreciated art-form known as inventing. You know who you are, and you are commended!
And then, for all of you who stood above and looked beyond these meeting "starters" and came up with new creative ideas and patents or patents in process, you are the exemplars, the ones we all need to have in our company and our companionship lest we slip and let that better idea fad and be lost. Besides the inspiration essential to the forming of each of your ideas, somehow, we hope, the NIA group encouragement is an additional support and inspirational in meeting the challenges necessary for producing that new and better product!
And no less, thanks and gratitude to the other NIA officers who carried out their obligations so that the president was left with little more than to show up on time for the meetings. This team effort is greatly appreciated and without it I dare say that this President would likely have taken leave come selection time for year 2005.
All the other individual efforts of the membership have been vital in keeping "fire in the belly" of our inventors group. Thanks for your input and contributions.
New ideas are exciting. They should be exciting. If it were not the case that special "insight" might well fad and be gone as quickly as it emerged. It is hardly an overstatement to suggest that many original ideas have, in due course, without that excitement, lost their power and punch and turned to naught.
Therefore, is it too much to speculate that an inventor's club, group, whatever the name, may well possess the power and potential that might be just enough to keep the insight alive and perhaps even be vital in getting it over the hump? If it is so we have good cause to look to the New Year with group excitement All your help is appreciated and vitally needed.
It's important. . essential that we keep our group "fired up."
During the ladder course of 2004 a number of club ideas had developed which might well serve as NlA's New Year's resolutions. We will develop brochures for every guest who attends our meetings. Guests will leave the meeting with a better Idea what we inventors are all about. We will develop a library (portable) with invention related books and sources to aid Inventors. We hope to become part of a grant that could open other options for the Nevada Inventors Association and no less for the City and surrounding communities. We will pursue developing extensive information about any of our cooperating inventors, their skills, their various areas of expertise, which will be compiled in three-ring binder form for ready access to the membership, and thus provide greater networking facilities.
Finally, we will make head way on a club invention to enhance our understanding of how the patenting process works, and no less seek to market the new device with proceeds to be allocated as per a prearranged agreement.
2005 will be a good year! Happy New Year! Lets get started!
Len Schweitzer
PatentCafe
New Technology Keeps Wine Fresh After three years in development, engineering company Pek Systems is to launch what it claims is the first affordable high-end device to preserve wine. It uses replaceable cartridges of argon gas to displace oxygen from partially empty bottles of wine. .
FISTS ARE FLYING Nike Pirates Stickman Character Nike just did it, u court has found. As in infringing on a cartoon stickman character created by a 28-year-old Chinese cartoon creator. The Goliath sportswear firm was ordered by a Beijing-based court yesterday to pay Zhu Zhiqiang 300,000 Yuan ($36,000) for a stickman television ad that Nike broadcast in Beijing last year. Patent Infringement Claimed A Union man is suing the Black & Decker Corp., alleging that the power-tools company infringed on his patent for a grass trimmer. Company Targets Banks in Patent Suit The lawsuits contend patent infringement, yet the defendants are usually not electronic commerce companies, but a relatively new target: banks or others in financial services. The company, the Data Treasury Corp. of Melville, N.Y., has sued companies that it says have infringed on its two patents, which describe a way to store and retrieve transaction records electronically.
Wednesday, August 18, 2004 by: Joe John Duran
Cooking shows give us some great recipes, but it takes business owners who have achieved the American Dream to provide the recipe for success.
Every company in the world, no matter how large, started at one time as an idea. That idea was nurtured and worked on and evolved over time into a business. For some companies that first spark became the beginning of a voyage that created a huge corporation.
Like Thomas Edison's light bulb spawning the behemoth General Electric, no one can predict how large or diverse that first idea will become. Yet there is no question that unless some of the entrepreneurial spirit that started the business remains within the organization, the business will plateau and become stagnant. That is why so many firms, from 3M to Dupont, strive to maintain the entrepreneurial spirit that created them.
So what are the attributes that foster success in an entrepreneurial organization? How do they compare to those found in the bureaucratic company? And how do you make them work for you?
We interviewed dozens of successful business owners for the book Start it, Sell it & Make a Mint (John Wiley & Sons) to find the common attributes that thriving independent businesses apply every day. Here are the four ingredients that capture the entrepreneurial spirit. They are applicable to not just anyone starting or currently running a business, but they are also important for any business leader who guides a team.
The First Ingredient: Originality
Every newly founded business has little brand recognition, and faces a slew of established competition. This forces every entrepreneurial venture to create different, and in many ways unique, products and services. Every new business owner has looked at the existing landscape and found a market that they believe is under served. This desire to be different is at the heart of the entrepreneurial endeavor.
By contrast, many established companies know what has worked for them in the past and would rather play it safe, keeping everything the same. Employees can become complacent and bored with their jobs. Challenging your company, or your division to keep growing and evolving, can help the business to thrive and keep employees motivated.
William, who runs a large auction firm, illustrates, When we started up there were plenty of firms in the auction business, but they all operated in dank and dingy environments. I thought surely people would like to come to an open, clean environment, one that ran like a regular retail operation." He took that vision and created a hugely successful operation.
The Second Ingredient:: Action
Another major facet of the early stage business is the propensity for action. Many live by the motto "ready, fire, aim." This is in stark contrast to the "ready, aim, aim, aim, aim" mindset of the bureaucratic organization. This often backfires for many newer businesses, especially as they grow larger, but the focus on doing, without any red tape, also creates nimbleness and results. The most successful entrepreneurial ventures act, but they do so deliberately. They know when it' time to stop planning and time to start doing.
Mike, who runs one of the largest bakeries in California, concurs. "Whenever we are faced with a big decision, like whether to buy incredibly expensive ovens, I have to be willing to take the plunge. Seldom do things work out the way we forecast; sometimes they're better, and sometimes they're worse, but doing nothing is certain failure."
The Third Ingredient: Passion
Most start up businesses face countless hurdles on their path to success. Every entrepreneur we interviewed overcame huge obstacles along the way. The common theme among all of the business owners we talked with was that persistence alone wasn't enough. Passion is what kept them motivated. A mindset of "failure not being an option" kept the whole company focused, determined and passionate about succeeding. This stick-to-itness can be found at many bureaucratic organizations, but a passion for the cause is often lacking. Passion is what creates major breakthroughs when obstacles are encountered..
Steve who runs a chain of laundries agrees. "You know, its not _ all that exciting cleaning shirts for a living. It's not that different from the post office ~there's always more to come tomorrow! But in every store we create an environment where people love to come to work. We have fun, we laugh and we also really take pride in the work we do. We recognize everyone's efforts. Everyone feels like he or she is part of something. That translates to good service and happy customers."
The Fourth Ingredient: Adaptability
Change is the only constant in a competitive market. Because entrepreneurial ventures have fewer layers between the principals and the market, and less red tape to deal with, they tend to react and adapt quickly to changes in the market. Having the flexibility to change course and admit when things aren't working out can be the difference between failure and success for a smaller company. A large organization can survive several mistakes in the short term, but over time, they need to learn to adapt and change, or they will be left behind.
Bob, a seasoned financial services entrepreneur agrees. "We have to evolve and change every two years. We knew that if we didn't make a significant change to the way we operate or the services we offer every two years, we would simply be competing on price, and that doesn't work for an independent business."
Putting these elements to work within your company or division can help to improve your results and the morale of your group.-:
Whatever you're pitching, zillions of factors will play in your prospects final decision. All else being equal, you have the edge if you can connect emotionally and intellectually This will create more trust in you than in your competitors. How can you get your prospects to like you? Try these tips.
• Focus and be sincere. If you appear nervous or unsure, you may seem devious or incompetent. If you don't respond to their concerns and you continue on with a canned pitch, they will decide you don't care about them or their problems. Look people right in the eyes and let them know you stand 100% behind the ideas, products, or services that you want to sell them. Pick up on their concerns, and address them. Be real.
•"divide and conquer." If you're doing a sales presentation, shake hands with everyone as they enter the room. Connect with them so you see them as individuals, and you become more memorable to them too. (People are usually shyer of groups of strangers than in one-on-one contacts. )
• Use technology to enhance your sates presentation, not drown it PowerPoint can keep you on track, but it can't establish trust.. .
• Keep it simple and memorable! When your prospects have a debriefing afterwards, you want them to remember what you said and to recall the mental movies you put into their minds. You want them to remember you more than anything your competitors pitched. Break your talking points into snappy sound bites that are easy to write down and remember. Make them interesting and repeatable.
• Steer clear of technical language and jargon. Rehearse your presentation in advance with your spouse or an intelligent 12-year-old across the dinner table. If there's anything they don't understand, it's too complicated.
• Tell great stories People are trained to resist a sales pitch. But who can resist a good story? Let's say you're trying to get money to fund your software company. Tell a story about how the prospective investor's life will change when you bring the product to market: "Imagine that a year from now you'll come to work and use this software to do in 5 minutes what now takes you 45 minutes. I don't know what that would do to your life, but in all our test markets or pilot programs, people tell us..." Then add more stories.
Take a lesson from Hollywood and give your stories interesting characters, dialogue, and a dramatic lesson that your prospects can relate to. Don't say, "Certain companies have used our software." Don't even say, "IBM has used our software." Instead, say, "Joe Smith at IBM said to me, 'If we don't increase sales turnover by 20%, we won't make our projections'. we guaranteed them they could if they used our software. Six months later, Joe called and said, 'You guys saved us."'
If you are pitching a product that hasn't been built yet, build a story about what it will be like for someone using it.
You're way ahead of any and all your competition, when your prospects relate to you, like you, and trust you.
Tsunami Warning and Disaster Recovery Technology
Andy Gibbs
There is no doubt that we will see a immediate rush of patent applications being filed on inventions related to tsunami sensing / warning systems, communication systems, disaster recovery methods and so forth. Inventors look for solutions to problems, and the post 9/11 phenomenon of a flurry of anti-terrorist inventions can be expected once again.
If history holds true, there is bound to be the emergence of a number of patent applications that teach an affordable, deployable, and easily produced "consumer product" approach to what has traditionally been very expensive military / commercial ocean event warning systems used for tsunami alert. Of course, with the ubiquity of cell phones today, the ability to immediately communicate with residents of nearly every developed and developing country is a new piece of the total warning system puzzle that was simply not there a decade ago.
The entire PatentCafe staff joins the world in expressing our condolences to the people of the world who 's lives will be immeasurably and unforgettably changed by the tragedy of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and hope that technology will continue to play in increasing role in helping to avoid similar losses in the future.
has had a set back in his to recovery from a fan that caused him serious neck and back injury. lie now must remain still and immobile while his body does the hard work of healing. We hope and pray for Jim's speedy recovery.
"Art of of being wise is the art of knowing what to over look." Confucius
"The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions." Confucius
"A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug." Patricia Neal
"He who will not economize will have to agonize." Confucius
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