Last year, more than 350,000 patent applications were filed. 6,000,000 was granted for the technology used to transfer data from computers to Palm Pilots. patent ever granted, in 1790, was for potash, an ingredient in fertilizer and soap. Patent and Trademark Office has more than 6 million patents on file.
One thing about inventors, there are lots of them. “It would be great if we could get it out in time for next Thanksgiving,” she said. Now the potato masher-looking like a cross between a bread machine and a Cuisinart-is in the hands of an engineering company, which is putting together a machine that, with luck, should be on the market in about a year. When informed she was a semifinalist, she and her sister-in-law stayed up all night piecing together the prototype with a glue gun. O’Connor, of Chicago, submitted her idea to Hammacher Schlemmer after receiving a flier in the mail inviting her to enter the invention contest.
That might have been the end of the story were it not for the contest. Once she concocted a design, albeit a crude one, that would cook and mash (but not peel) potatoes she applied for and received a patent on her machine. So she decided to make one herself, using parts from other appliances she already owned. She actually went to several stores looking for such a machine before finally realizing that one did not exist. Take, for instance, the mashed-potato maker by Carmina O’Connor that was a finalist in last year’s contest. “I wish more companies did it,” said Joanne Hayes-Rines, the editor of Inventors’ Digest, who said the Hammacher Schlemmer contest is a way to spotlight ingenious creations that might otherwise go unnoticed. That includes everything from building prototype molds, obtaining patents, finding a manufacturer and, finally, putting the invention on the market. And he also said most amateur inventors haven’t a clue about how hard it is to move from idea to market.
Lawrence Udell, the director of the California Invention Center, said that less than 3% of all patents issued earn more money than is spent on development-a figure that can range from a few hundred dollars to millions. Picone’s long road to recognition is nothing new. The wrench will soon be an item in the famed Hammacher Schlemmer catalog-the oldest in the United States and one that specializes in high-end gadgetry. “I could have sold a thousand of them,” said Picone of his $39.99 wrench, which grips a bolt with the flick of a battery-powered switch. His prototype was a hit at a recent national hardware convention. His big break came when his wrench was the 1999 grand prize winner of Hammacher Schlemmer’s Search for Invention contest, which netted him a cool $5,000 and enough buzz about his product to allow him to move forward and attract financing for his own manufacturing facility.
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