DOUG HALL BLOGGED LIVE- Hi folks -- I've answered some of the questions posted to get things going... - Doug Hall

The daughter I spoke of is 17 now. Regarding the bow -- as I recall Peter and I laughed through most of it - especially at Mary Lou's reaction. I have no control of the edit - what I'm looking at is not necessarily what you think I'm looking at -- it could be from any time that day.

Hey guys, Doug's going to have to go real soon. So I just wanted to thank him, and all of you, for making this a huge success. I'll touch base again after Doug is gone. But WAY TO GO DOUG!

Hey, I think you should do a series here ...Sunday nights with Doug.

Frankly, I have found the discussion here tonight more entertaining and interesting that all of the episodes of the show combined.

I wish you woul ask the producers of the show to have more respect for the viewers. We are not all a bunch of dummies looking for a cheap laugh.

Good Evening Doug, Thanks for coming.
Submitted by BobLoveland on Sun, 2006-04-23 17:04.

Love the show, and looking forward to Season II. (Hint hint)

I'm curious about the entry process of the show. Did you and the other judges have to screen ALL the entries or was there a process to help weed out any of the absolutely absurd products, or were there multiple panels of judges and your team had the final say so?

NO THE PRODUCERS LOOKED AT MANY -- THEN WE SAW THE SECOND ROUND

Any idea of how many entries there were in the competition?

Thousands -- I've heard lots of numbers from 4,000 to 15,000

Did you see anything that didnt make it as an entry that you thought.. Hmm I want one of those..

The two that I mentioned previously and the Tank Go Cart - it was way cool.

Finally, if it were your decision to make, would you allow previous participants to re-enter into the competition for season 2 if there was one?

YES -- and I beleive that will be possible -- but check the rules when they come out

For example, if someone's prototype had some problems and didn't win.. What if between seasons the issues were resolved. Do you think that participant should be granted a second chance?

If they want to wait for hours again.

Thanks to Doug and to American Inventor Spot. You guus are awesome!!

My son just yelled down to me from upstairs -- Sunday Nights with Doug....hey how Boring would that be.

It's great having Teenagers - -they keep my honest.

For those that care we have a 15, 17 and 19 year old.

that's a copout. i will bet you 10 to 1-- my $10,000-- that you were leering the entire time. no guts, no class.

and if the naughty knot woman came out I would be leering too. Regardless of whether or not Doug was leering, its irrelevant.

I'll take the bet.

That's easy money.

Where should I have them send the unedited tape.

You need to understand the absolute absurdity of the situation. It was pandemonium -- the censors went crazy behind the lady (in our eye sight) - Mary Lou went crazy -- Peter and I couldn't stop laughing.

Truth is, Doug, like all of us, is a very busy person. And we're very grateful that he's spent time with us this Sunday night. Who knows, maybe he'll be back. We know we'd especially love to see him after HIS episode airs with his cutdown. But if not, I know it was well worth it.

Having just gotten off the phone with him, I know his fingers must be tired. He's been typing non stop since 9:30. So again, thanks to Doug from AmericanInventorSpot.com

And we ask all of you, to please spread the word about this site if you like what we've tried to do here. Post clips from our content with links back. Email friends. Whatever. Right now, we're just trying to drive as much traffic to the site as possible so that we can keep this crazy little thing we started going.

Thanks to Doug for your generosity in spending some time with us on this site. You have been wonderful to do this.

For those who are coming to this site to converse with Doug, I urge you all to look around the site, especially at our Invention Gallery at all the interesting inventions featured on our site.

I know Doug is a real supporter of the individual inventor and has done this in part to help enahce the ability of the inventors featured on our site to help get their dreams to market.

My fingers hurt.

Remember the words of Franklin -- Up Sluggard And Waste Not Life. In the Grave Will Be Sleeping Enough.

Good night

Doug

Thanks again Doug, you're the best.

Come again soon..

This was really cool. Thanks you guys.

Was curious to know if they ever work on ideas or products of their own rather than just contract work for other companies..

Thanks. This was really great.

Here's my take. I'm blown away by how generous Doug was with his time to come here and do a live blog. Obviously, he's welcome here any time. As are any of the other judges, producers etc. You here that Mary Lou, Peter, Ed, Liz B., Simon C?

Just go to the contact us spot in the nav bar and you to can work the fingers out for an hour or so.

Again, thanks Doug.

I loved the event as well. I only found out about AIs 2 days ago, and quickly signed up to join in on the event. Unfamiliar with the format, I found myself posting to the WRONG PLACE... ARRGH.. but then I wasnt the only one..

But had a blast... Still reading it all.

The guys here did an awesome job. Everyone should go click on some ads for them... its like applause, guys.

Well done. I just clicked on a few just for you. Thanks!!

Clicks are applause? Well, I never thought of it that way. Hah!

Hey Bob, how did you find the site? I can't beleive it took you so long to find it.

Personally, I think this site just blows away the competition. They have great content, both serious and funny, and they really care about the inventors here.

They asked folks to post on other sites, but I don't really go on other sites. Maybe I should just to get people here. People who don't come here and watch the show are seriously missing out.

If not, click here to vote on the top 12 inventions. Let's see how right the judges are at the end of the day.

BOOM or BUST

We're doing our best. And damn, that takes work. We haven't figured out the ad thing yet. In other words, how to make any significant money to pay for all the hosting fees etc. But I believe in good Karma. Like that show Ed. And as our site traffic increases... well, we'll just wait and see how it all works out.

So please, direct people here. Link to us on your blogs. Advertise here. And if you see links or ads on our site that interest you, feel free to click through. Applause are welcome. If you're looking for a wacky gift, find it through one of our links. It helps. If you see a book through our Amazon link that you like, buy it through that link. It helps. If you want to secure a web domain, do it through one of our links, like the godaddy one. It helps.

Thanks for listening. And thanks to all our loyal supporters. If you come across any interesting articles or content out their on the web, let us know by contacting us in the nav bar.

And as always, keep on inventing.

Thank you Doug for your comments. We are continuing to work hard towards making BulletBall and BulletBall Extreme a success. I maybe should have stressed the humanitarian qualities of the game such as being wheelchair friendly and age/gender neutral. I'm not sure how to "box up" the game though....:)

Marc

Doug: Stick to your way of doing business, because in the
end your right,

Wish I had been there live, and I hope I have a chance the next time around, if there's one.

I plan on auditioning if there's a new season. But my question to Doug would be, do you think I should have some human drama story prepared - aside from having a kick ass invention? It seems that helps.

And way to go AIS, this site rocks. And I agree with the comment way above, it blows away the competition.

Doug did his homework.
He researched and found the GoBagger and found out about it's history and development, patent searches, etc. He bought the product to see for himself, then had an opinon that it was a better product. The product has been patented and "out there" for 6 1/2 years and has sold thousands all over the country and the world. It has not enjoyed any widespread publicity until this show (well, only peripherally).
Doug was not allowed to express this opinion in the edited versions of the show, but did so on his own website, www.doughall.com, "Soapbox" on Friday, 4/21/06.

Doug: You seem the only judge that has any idea whats
happening, keep up the good work, I'm sure it will
pay off for the three you are mentoring

Dear Doug, I love the show American inventor, I tape it so my husband can watch it on his day off, We never knew this was out there, I love to see my husband on the next show, hopefully there will be a next one and do you think they will be in cincinnati to look for more American inventors, He is getting his patent done and file today by his lawyer it was alot of work just getting the patent done and the time in getting the search done. you know all that. but if there is going to be another show how do you go about it or finding out about the try outs. thank you have a great day.

Hi Doug,
You mentioned that readers have been sending you information about products which have already been invented.
Has anybody - ABC, judges, etc. done
any kind of search to determine if any of the inventions
hasn't been patented or sold by somebody else?

Discussion boards about the show are full
of links to products that appear similar. I haven't checked them to see if they are really different, but I am sure you heard about several.

Has anybody did any kind of search for "prior art" before you selected the final 12, even just google?

I work for a research lab and have a couple of patents as well as a number of applications and the very first thing we do when we get an idea is some basic search - google, USPTO, delphion. Company lawyers do the more serious search since to avoid wasting money, but we still do the preliminary one so that not to waste time. It seems that ABC would be embarassed if somebody wins the show only to find out that it has already been invented and patented. I am not sure about legal matters. It also kind of sad for us viewers to really like some invention and to find out that it is not new.

Was any kind of search done during the selection? If yes, why wasn't it thorough enough to at least eliminate things that are being sold on the internet? If not, why?

Dear Doug,
It was not clear to me how much time you get to pitch more than one inventionn idea. Say you have three different ideas to pitch, would you only get 2 minutes to pitch all three? Or would you get 2 minutes per idea? Please clarify.

On the time out, kids love to go into places like that. Examples: building their own for in a chair and blanket, card board box, even ouside in a honey suckle lined fence, etc.. They can see in this invention and know they can get out if they want! The banging together though, I have reservations on. It would be better to put boxing type gloves on them.