FOR INVENTORS

Attention, all parents, grandparents, proud aunts, uncles, and friends!

Martha Stewart is looking for some amazingly talented kid inventors--of all ages--who would like to exhibit their creations on her show. If you know the perfect child, please email the inventor's story and contact information. They will try to respond to all emails.

read more »

Here's an opportunity for all you female inventors that want to be a guest on the Martha Show. I think it will be a great opportunity.

Here's the deal:

read more »

Hi all!

So now that you have drawn up your plans for your totally cool invention, perhaps some plans for your voice activated rotary easy chair mounted beer can dispenser that chills the can, opens it and puts it in your hand. (Wow, it just dawned on me that this would be a great invention as I would surely buy one.) You have talked to experts in the field, done a patent search, done your market research. And now you have to commit to a prototyper to help you build your prototype. What to do now?

read more »

It's amazing how many people have visited this site specifically because we had a photo of the round baby car seat. And the chatter about it is equally amazing. If you saw the show, you saw that it uses basic physics to work against the forces of a car accident. The baby seat rocks - helping protect the baby inside. Will it work? Who knows. But congrats to the judges for moving this one forward to see if this show can actually be used to "improve" a product concept. If this one can work... it could be huge.

read more »

So American Inventor did ok on the ratings this week, coming in at the #2 position behind CSI with 9.27 million viewers on Thursday.

Take a look at AdWeek if you want to see the details. read more »

Carl, our terrific guest blogger from Inventive Rants created a special posting for American Inventor Spot talking about the key timing issues related to the inventing
process. I think its an essential read for all inventors:

The Invention Timeline

Inventors want to know, how long does the process take? How long does it take from "Eureka" to "royalty check"? The short answer is that it will take anywhere from 1-4 years for an invention to earn money. The key to accelerating the process is networking. Every-time you bring a value-added participant into your venture, you increase the likelihood of moving forward.

read more »

I am going to be filling in for Always Thinking (that’s what I call thinkoutsidethecirlce). He’s burning the midnight oil at work and can not escape his day (and sometimes night) job. So let’s get down to business.

Joey Magiapane, 67 - Truck Driver
Invention: Dial a Cup
It’s a multifaceted beverage system that makes coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and even soup. Has a rotating cylinder that turns to your favorite beverage. It has six permanent filters.

read more »

I was having trouble sleeping last night struggling to come up with an amusing posting for you, as we all wait with bated breath for the new episode of American Inventor.

Finally, around 3 am, I had the idea that it would be fun to joke around at InventorSpot.com about the kind of products that clearly wouldn't make the show. read more »

There's been a lively debate here at INVENTOR SPOT and across the web about many of the inventions that didn't move on. One of which, was the lifesaving frisbee. Will we see more of the same this week on EPISODE 4, where ideas that could be polished and then evaluated get the NO vote? read more »

Yipes!! It seems like our TV show has been dramtically weakened by the competition. Will it be back or will ratings continue its slide?

Poof! 'American Inventor' up in smoke.

Returning 'CSI' blows a hole in ABC reality hit

read more »

Carl is the blogger for Inventive Rants.
He is a successful inventor who produced an enhancement for manufacturing semiconductor chips in the nanoparticle process. I don't even know what that means so I just figure he's brilliant!

He had a blog posting about inventing that we thought was terrific so we asked him if he would mind if we incorporated a copy of it here. He happily said yes. Even better, he agreed to be a guest blogger and will be writing a special article (maybe a few if we're lucky) for American Inventor Spot soon. In the meantime, here's the blog posting that we wished we had written:

Inventor Survival

The problem with most how-to books on inventing a new product is that they focus on the fundamentals too much. Let's say you invent the next great widget that will make a million dollars; how do you survive the process?

read more »

Were you drowning in all the tears?

I actually thought this Third Show for American Inventor was much better than the first two. What did you think? read more »

EPISODE 3

First up:

Anthony Steffen – 44 – Small business owner

Invention: the perfect pet petter.
It automatically pets your dog. It's a kind of creepy robo arm thing.

Peter – thinks it’s ridiculous
Mary – it’s a freak out machine for a dog
Ed – No
Doug – no
TOTAL BUST.
read more »

Personally, I auditioned for Liz Bronstein in NYC at the Armory Track & Field Center. Didn't make it to round 2. One of the guys before me on line, was the VERY FIRST guy on the very first show. You know the one. He had the body bag urinal thing. I can tell you, when he came out from his 2 minute audition, he looked miserable. But hey, he got a free trip to LA for his 2 minutes of, well, fame.

I'll be watching closely tonight to see who made it. Here's some of the things the web has been reporting over the last few months that MIGHT have made it.
read more »

One of the most important things for any successful person is the ability to take feedback. Can you stand to hear the truth? Or are you just hanging on to what you want to hear? read more »

Here's how ABC's website describes episode 3: The nationwide search for America's next big invention continues with open casting calls in San Francisco, New York and Denver. Viewers will see inventions ranging from the hilarious to the tragic, and inventors from the passionate to the downright crazy.

Looks like one of the American Inventor shows' judges is not watching. A judge wrote into AI Spot and said that he could not watch the show because he was in Europe at the time. Hmmmm. Whose in Europe? Looks to me like even though Peter Jones is not watching the show he's visiting our website. Thanks for visiting Peter. Feel free to comment on anything you like. read more »

There's a new article out interviewing Doug Hall, one of the judges on the American Inventor show that has a great quote:

'Inventor' Expert Tells It Like It Is

By John Kiesewetter
The Cincinnati Enquirer

When Simon Cowell went looking for a blunt, bold judge for his new "American Inventor" reality show on ABC, he found Cincinnati inventor Doug Hall.
read more »

For inventors to be successful, they do not necessarily have to give up their two front teeth or their right arm in order to develop and market their products successfully.

You need to be as inventive in getting your idea out without too much risk to your livelihood and your pocketbook as you were in having the great idea in the first place. read more »

For your product, you need to clarify who would be likely to buy you product and figure out how to make your product attractive to that audience. It's very helpful to put yourself in the shoes of who the buyer might be and craft your product and advertising pitch to make sure that type of buyer would be moved by your meesage to buy your product. read more »

All the things that made it through to the next round so far in the show are up for you to check out, vote on and comment on.
Word is, some of the judges actually check out this site. So let them know what you think about the inventions that moved forward AND VOTE in the BOOM OR BUST section.
I've only uploaded those inventions that moved forward either by being judged, or the quick cuts of "on to the next round" clips we saw.
Enjoy.
And feel free to check out the FORUM SECTION for lively discussion on all the episodes, inventions and whatnot. read more »