Every month, Inventors Digest celebrates emerging inventions and innovations in its Under the Radar section. If you’d like to have your product or technology featured, send a description and high-resolution image to info@inventorsdigest.com. Note: Having your invention published starts the clock ticking on when you can file for a U.S. patent and kills the chance to file [...]
Archive for May, 2011
New Inventions from Independent Inventors
Friday, May 20th, 2011Gyro Bowl Debuts in Japan!
Thursday, May 19th, 2011Remember Gyro Bowl’s international debut just last month? Well, it seems the “little orange sphere that could” continues to make a splash across the globe, most recently with its Japanese television debut. Check out the clip below to see the Japanese-language version of our Gyro Bowl infomercial, currently making its way into living rooms, children’s hands, and parents’ hearts throughout Japan… Only further proof that a “no-cleanup snack time” is a universal language!
Lemelson Gives $4M for Social Innovation
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
The Lemelson Foundation, an organization that believes invention is critical to solving the world’s most challenging problems, is pledging more than $4 million across six partners that create and advance social innovations for people who need it most in both the U.S. and developing countries. The spring 2011 Lemelson grantees include Ashoka, East Meets West, [...]
Invention Contest
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
The Inventors Club of Kansas City is looking for new inventions for its 6th annual Invention Contest. But this isn’t just another invention contest – this is an opportunity to have key decision makers with global brands see your product. These companies are actively seeking great new products like yours. The ICKC team reviews and [...]
Mark Stark’s Prosthetic Hand lands on the cover of Popular Science!
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011Today on newsstands – and in the homes of 1.3+ million subscribers – Mark Stark’s Prosthetic Hand graces the cover of Popular Science. Not only is it a true stand out on the cover, but Mark’s innovation leads the annual coverage of the “2011 Inventions of the Year.”
Back in February, a PopSci editor asked our team if we had exceptional innovations that met three prerequisites: featured a technological innovation, would impact lives and hasn’t hit the market yet. Mark Stark and his “Natural Dexterous Hand” immediately came to mind.
Mark has been a true sport throughout his first media whirlwind of phone interviews and photographers – and I’m sure it won’t be his last.
From all us at Edison Nation, congratulations Mark!
To view Mark’s story in Popular Science, click here.
How to Get Your Patent Quicker
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
By Andrea Dick If you have filed a patent application in recent years, then you know it can to take up to two years to receive a first action from the United States Patent Office (USPTO) and a year or more after that for the patent to be granted … or rejected. The patent office [...]
Edison Nation Announces 4th ASOTV Win!
Monday, May 16th, 2011We have some egg-citing news about one of our beloved members within our community!
Here’s what you may or may not know quite yet about our friend, Betsy Kaufman.
For the record, Betsy is not your traditional inventor. Rather, she’s a mother in Texas, a wife and a television producer. If you were to ask her yourself, she’d tell you as much.
She’s just someone who had a “kooky idea.”
Kooky is being far too modest. Let us count the ways.
On a chance day in a Bed Bath & Beyond store, Betsy came across “Edison Nation” on the back of a store receipt. Lucky for us, this sparked an interest. She made her first foray into the Live Product Search world with Bed Bath’s Students of Invention search. We all know submitting an idea is half the battle. The real fun enters the picture as you keep an anxious eye on your dashboard for movement. Will it go green or will it go red? Inventing is a marathon, after all.
As Betsy kept watch on her dorm room ideas, she came across an As Seen On TV search for new camera-ready concepts.
And so, it was while standing in her kitchen one early morning, watching the water boil a few eggs, that she came across her “kooky” concept. What about a heat-resistant, egg-shaped container that prevented hairline fractures? One that kept you from laboring over the peeling of egg shells, the notorious bane of garbage disposals around the country?
While anxiously waiting to hear back on her “Student of Invention” ideas, Betsy decided to submit her then-named “Egg Toss” for ASOTV consideration. She did not have a single CAD drawing or a minute of video; rather, she had a well-explained, well-written description of her egg-making concept, which was soon selected for testing.
Betsy told me recently that “Edison Nation levels the playing field between idea people and real inventors.”
We’re all happy to be a part of the leveling. But it’s Betsy and our ASOTV partner that’s going to crush the DRTV space this year, giving Edison Nation our fourth ASOTV win!
Beginning today – Monday, May 16 – Eggies is going national, folks.You’ll also soon be able to find Eggies in select retailers this summer, and in stores everywhere across the country this fall.
According to our partner, early indications show that Eggies will sell in the millions and is on track to becoming one of the best DRTV products of the year.
How about that for a “kooky” idea? It’s going to be huge. And we’re all so excited to be a part of Betsy’s exciting journey as mother and TV producer-turned-inventor of mega-selling infomercial product.
Visit www.buyeggies.com and be sure to give Betsy a virtual high five in the forums!
And from the Edison Nation team,
congratulations Betsy!
Ask the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Monday, May 16th, 2011
Q. I have an idea for a patent, but I did a search and found something close to the one the idea I have. The idea is similar, but not the same. Can I still apply for a patent? A. Yes, you can still apply for a patent. Most patents are improvements over old technology, [...]
Lemelson-MIT Names $100K Winner
Friday, May 13th, 2011
The Lemelson-MIT Program named Dr. Elizabeth Hausler winner of this year’s $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability for engineering earthquake-resistant housing in the developing world. Hausler, CEO and founder of the nonprofit Build Change, designed a reconstruction solution to combat building collapses during natural disasters, potentially saving thousands of lives. A lack of building standards in many developing countries can [...]
Smart Mention in ‘Stupid Inventor’
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
We’ll take this as a compliment – Inventors Digest gets a star turn in the online comic strip “Stupid Inventor” this week. The magazine appears in Comic #139, titled “The Husband” in artist/inventor Zachary Snyder’s online, off-beat look at inventing and inventors. Zachary fell into our readership orbit by way of our ongoing Facebook trivia [...]