FOR INVENTORS

Since founding her company, Sara Blakely has donated more than $10 million dollars, employs 100+ people, has been on Oprah, was featured in a reality show with Sir Richard Branson, and met former President Nelson Mandela!

How did Sara Blakely reach such success? The story goes like this…

One inventor, Andrew Lewis of Harlem, has come up with a way to keep the eyesore saggies above the butt.  It was a trend many of us hoped would go away, but it has actually caught 'on fire' in urban neighborhoods.  Saggy pants.  The fat workman's 'crack,' so often hyperbolized as the height of grossness, is now considered fashion among school kids and even those in their twenties! 

This past January performance body suits were banned from swimming competitions, leaving many competitors spineless... in a way. 

Your power strip has six power outlets, but strangely, you cannot insert more than three or four power plugs at a time.  The outlets are all meant for the standard two or three pronged plug, but as we know there are any number of adapters that depend on electric power, and they take up a lot more room than a regular lamp plug. With 709 inventors contributing, Quirky's Pivot Power creates an elegant solution.

When submitting your invention, new product idea, or patent to a manufacturer, getting past the 'non-disclosure' agreement can be a challenge. Learn how these confidentiality agreements can work for you.

Get your inventions ready for Season 4 of the Emmy award-winning show, Everyday Edisons.  Sorry, the casting directors are not coming to a city near you this year.... You're going to them... via the Internet.  That's right.  Season 4 casting will be conducted online through Edison Nation.

I recently attended my local Inventors Association (Inventors Alliance in Northern California) and noticed that Inventors kept asking Andrew Krauss (President of Inventors Alliance) about the differences between Manufacturing and Licensing a product.  New Inventors were confused about what these terms meant and wanted to learn more about the factors to consider when deciding which way to go for their own product.  So I thought I'd take a minute to discuss both options as this comes up all of the time in my workshops and classes as well.

Dean Kamen, best known for the invention of the Segway personal transporter, will co-host an 8-part series on invention starting tomorrow, October 22, 2010, for Planet Green on the Discovery Channel.  The series, titled Dean of Invention, was named for and after Kamen, as he is now holds more than 400 patents himself.   Though inspiring for all, Dean of Invention is intended to inspire young persons to enter science and math so that they can be a part of shaping their own futures.