Meetings are at the Enterprise C

Valley Marketing is the area’s most diversified promotional products and corporate recognition distributor in this area. Located at the Eastworks Building in Easthampton, Massachusetts, Valley Marketing offers promotional products, corporate recognition, online services, graphics and fulfillment. Company owner and President John Richards will present an outline of this unique industry and answer questions such as: What is a promotional product, how to select a product and how to bring your product or idea to the promotional product market. Valley Marketing services major corporate clients, small area businesses and non-profits, including public TV and public radio in Western Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Marketing Your Invention through Catalogues
Jack Lander, Inventor-Mentor.com

Jack has written a popular featured column for Inventors' Digest magazine for the past eight years, and served as the invention development and manufacturing expert for Entrepreneur.com, the Internet arm of Entrepreneur magazine. He has also written and published a book on job searching, and was commissioned to write Make Money by Moonlighting by Ted Nicholas of Entrepreneur Publishing Co. He produced and edited THE Inventor's Master Plan for the United Inventors Association, and authored the chapter on prototyping for Don Debelak's book, Think Big.

He has served as President of the prestigious United Inventors Association, a not-for-profit umbrella organization that helps inventor networking groups and inventors throughout North America. He presently serves his ninth year as Vice President of the (not-for-profit) Yankee Invention Exposition and Yankee Entrepreneur Workshops., He founded Innovators Network, a local inventor group in Connecticut, and The Inventor's Bookstore, a "dot-com" business that is now a not-for-profit subsidiary of the United Inventors Association.

Jack is a mechanical engineer who has received ten patents on highly successful laparoscopic surgical instruments, computer chip testing devices, and a bicycle transmission that is more efficient than the traditional derailleur. He was the founder of Shortrun/Precision Fabricators, a business that specialized in producing prototypes and short production runs for high-tech businesses in the Los Angeles area.

Jack has helped more than two thousand inventors in the U.S. and many other countries by telephone, mail, and e-mail, and coaches inventors in all aspects of the invention process.

All in Play provides fully accessible online games for the entire family. While Texas Hold ‘Em, Crazy Eights and Draw Poker are games enjoyed by millions, All in Play’s business plan has been to take the game craze online. And very importantly, All in Play’s games are fully accessible to people who are blind or have limited vision.

Paul spoke at the October 2001 IRN meeting, when the company was called ZForm. He will speak with us about the trip the company has taken since then.Paul has raised $250k from angels, pitched to venture capitalists and runs the River Valley Investors angel investor group in Springfield, helping investors find young companies seeking investment. At the River Valley Investors Paul coaches all incoming entrepreneurs on how to fine tune their presentations. Paul has recently launched Angel Catalyst which provides turnkey management solutions that enables angel investor groups to focus on what they do best: finding, evaluating and investing in quality deals.

Paul also heads the UMass Entrepreneurship Initiative, a very exciting credit progam for students in which they get real world experience as they work on developing their own businesses.

Leslie and Eddie Grinnell of Shelburne Falls will describe the development and growth of their business, Eddie’s Wheels at the August 1 meeting of the Innovators Resource Network. The Grinnells, along with several employees, provide carts used by dogs that have lost the use of limbs due to injury, disease, or age. The wheelchairs (carts) are custom made, based on a dog’s measurements, breed and disability. Since 1999, their carts have been delivered all over the world and in 2002, they began their association with a Japanese rep who directly imports carts made here for Japanese customers.

Dick Fuchs, long time IRN member, will speak on getting new products to market through licensing. Dick holds a number of patents and has had a several products successfully licensed. Dick creates his own prototypes and pre-production samples in his machine shop which includes equipment that allows him to do testing, diagnostics, and measuring. Dick has a very ‘real world’ approach to inventing.

His products include The Putty Chaser™, The Ignition Check™, The Ignition Trak™, and Better Edges™, a knife sharpener.

The featured speakers will be Southampton, Massachusetts based product developers Chris and Sonia Hillios. Inventors and developers of SeaDine Snorkel Snax™, their underwater fish food is “a revolutionary fun way to feed fish while snorkeling, swimming or diving.”

Chris and Sonia established Seadine in 2004. They will describe the ups and downs they encountered in getting their business launched, focusing in part on the manufacturing problems that arose and the marketing issues they have faced.

Snorkel Snax™ is a unique, patented underwater fish feeding system. Conceived in the Caribbean, and made in USA, this ingenious product utilizes a proprietary blend of marine grade fish food.

Fran Appleby, president and co-owner of A&A Packaging in West Springfield, will speak on packaging at the December 6^th meeting of the Innovators’ Resource Network. Ms. Appleby has been in the packaging business for over 25 years and started A & A Packaging, Inc. in January 1995. She has been involved in the entire packaging process for products. She designs, provides prototypes, contracts for manufacture all types of packaging products. Ms. Appleby will discuss how decisions concerning packaging can affect the bottom line as well as how under packaging a product may hurt sales of the product and how over packaging can drastically reduce profit dollars. A question and answer period will follow.

Wednesday, October 4, 2006
Trademarks, Don Holland Holland and Bonzagni, PC.

Don will provide an overview of trademarks. He will introduce us to the basics of trademarks and we will learn which brands can be registered, how to select marks that can be protected, how to avoid improper usage problems and how to protect marks.

HOLLAND & BONZAGNI is recognized for trademark innovation and litigation by virtue of several difficult registrations it has obtained, (e.g., the color "tan" for tool boxes) and its string of "trademark" successes in court. The firm has working relationships with various IP law firms worldwide, and has enjoyed stopping knockoffs in foreign markets. The firm is a member of the International Trademark Association ("INTA") and is included in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. Don received his law degree from the University of Miami and holds undergraduate degrees in liberal arts from Colgate University and in aerospace engineering from the University of Connecticut.

In the mid-1970s, Don Holland was a Patent Examiner in "Rotary Pumps and Turbines" at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Don has been a member of the Adjunct Faculty at Western New England College School of Law in Springfield, MA. Don has also co-taught in the Paralegal Program at Bay Path College. In addition, Don has acted as an arbitrator and an Early Neutral Evaluator (a.k.a. mediator) in IP litigation.

Don has written a booklet that many nationwide corporations use, entitled "Corporate Guide to Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights and Trade Secrets." That booklet is in its fourth edition and has received many plaudits. It is available at http://www.hblaw.org

“Understanding ‘Risk’ in Bringing New Products to Market” is the presentation for the August 2 meeting of the Innovators’ Resource Network. Dave Cormier and Karyl Lynch of Pelham West Associates, will discuss risk from the point of view of the inventor bringing a product to market as well as for a company licensing a product from an inventor. They will draw upon their experience providing new product evaluation services to client companies. As product scouts they match companies seeking new products with products developed by independent inventors and they provide third party evaluation services for submissions made directly to client companies. Their clients range from small manufacturers to Fortune 100 companies. They are also partners in a manufacturing business in Massachusetts.

In business for eight years, Cormier and Lynch are frequent speakers at inventor events, including the Minnesota Inventors Congress and Yankee Invention Expo and they were speakers at the US Patent and Trademark Office’s 10th Annual Independent Inventors Conference in 2005.

Meeting: Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Michael Wales
Resources Conservation, Inc.

Michael Wales, from Riverside, Connecticut, will talk with us about his experiences as an inventor and developer and owner of a company.

Michael tells us:
“I don't have a resume other than I started my company making a full line of plumbing fixtures in 1978 and sold it to Masco (Delta Faucet) in 2001. I didn't go to college, and started my company by myself and had no partners or investors. I had 200 plus employees and sold my products to Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Lowes, and Target plus all of the regional chains and distributors. I had approximately 20 or so patents.” Michael’s patents include showerheads, aerators and sprayers. Michael now offers services to inventors.

Meeting: Wednesday, April 5, 2006
Warren Tuttle: House-wares Industry Marketing Guru

For those familiar with the current television direct-response mega-hit Smart Spin, Warren Tuttle was the person who spent the past two years behind the scenes orchestrating it’s “overnight” success. Teaming with a Boston, MA-based inventor, Tuttle mapped a path to market which includes the additional launch this Spring of an upscale version for department and specialty stores under the brand name Glida+Stor. Please visit www.smartspin.com to learn more.

During the past several years, Warren led the sales effort behind several other recent innovative kitchen product introductions including MISTO, The Gourmet Olive Oil Sprayer and StirChef, The Hands-Free Saucepan Stirrer. In 2005, QVC unveiled another Tuttle market first; the “Toss It All” raised edge fry-pan. This unique product was designed and patented by a local Westchester County chef and restaurateur. Meyer Cookware also licensed the patent for their version of the pan called the “Toss and Turn” pan, which was the single best selling cookware piece sold at better department and Specialty Stores across the country this past year. Tuttle’s long term goal is to change the traditional shape of the fry pan and additional licensing agreements with other cookware manufacturers are currently in process.

Tuttle, and his business partner Ed Ryan, have over 50 years of combined house-wares industry experience in retail buying, sales, product development and marketing. They recently formed a partnership under the name of Bear Mountain Marketing (which has nothing to do with house-wares, but everything to do with skiing, which they both try to do as often as possible). Tuttle and Ryan know every major house-wares retail buying group in the country and most industry manufacturers. They additionally have extensive knowledge in directly sourcing products. Searching the world for unique, kitchen-related products, patents and inventors, and then introducing these unique products to market, is the key to their unique business model.

Warren will speak about his past marketing and manufacturing successes, as well as some of the new products he will be bringing to market this year. You may not have heard of these products yet but hopefully, in the near future, they will become household names.

What makes a product successful? On one hand, it seems easy to define (good design, function, ease of use, price, manufacturability) but, on the other hand, we're all familiar with products that we thought should have been top sellers and which disappeared quickly and we've all shaken our heads over others that have amassed sales and wondered why. The format for this meeting is a discussion focused on identifying key characteristics of 'successful products'. Rick Ricard of Larien Products will moderate.

We ask that you bring a product that meets your own definition of a 'successful product'. We'll put these products out on a table before the meeting starts and use them in our discussion as a bit of 'show and tell'. Don't hesitate to bring a product that didn't succeed commercially but meets other criteria for 'success'.

RONALD O. WEINGARTNER

Co-Author of the Toy and Game Inventors Handbook

Mr. Weingarten is a 35-year veteran of corporate research and development in the toy industry. He is a former vice president for inventor relations at Hasbro Games, the world’s largest marketer of games and puzzles. His product development and marketing involvement has spanned preschool to computer software. His co-author, Richard C. Levy, has been inventing, developing and cashing in on original concepts for 25 years. Mr. Weingartner has reviewed literally thousands of submissions and produced hundreds of them.

Jeffery C. Conley, President of Eureka Medical, Inc. in Burlington, MA will speak at the October 5 meeting of the Innovators’ Resource Network. His presentation is titled Latest Trends in Medicine and Healthcare Delivery: A Major Opportunity for Medical Inventors.

Eureka is a resource for independent inventors and physician inventors with novel ideas for medical devices and healthcare products, offering no-cost services to rank, refine and present the best product ideas to the best-matched medical device companies.

Eureka Medical also offers services to innovation-seeking companies. The leading companies in the field generated over 30% of sales from new products introduced within the last three years. For corporations focused on healthcare innovation, Eureka offers better access to a powerful source of medical invention: a motivated network sourced from the over five million independent, highly educated medical professionals and healthcare inventors.

Bob Cann, founding IRN member, will give an informal history of the ups and downs of MILLA Company, the start-up manufacturing and distribution company he started with several venture partners in 2000. MILLA specializes in the design and production of patented sponge mops and dustpans.

Bob will start with a brief summary of the company's founding, financing, and early marketing attempts. This will be followed with a description of how MILLA got products into Target...and how MILLA later got thrown out of Target. A related subject will be how MILLA got into Linens 'N' Things...and later got thrown out there, too. Recently MILLA has begun licensing several of its patents to larger competitors...but has other competitors infringing on other patents. These and related stories of dog-eat-dog capitalism should make for a lively evening.

On Wednesday, June 1, Scott Keeley of OBVIA Design, will make a presentation on virtual prototyping at the meeting of the Innovators’ Resource Network. Keeley will describe virtual prototypes and provide examples of ways in which he and his clients have used them in moving products forward to the marketplace. An advantage Keeley will discuss is their cost-effectiveness.

OBVIA is a design firm based in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, with a virtual office specializing in providing assistance to individual inventors and small companies. OBVIA pulls together professionals to meet the specific needs of each individual project providing the lowest cost, best solution to bring products to market.

Meeting: Wednesday April 6, 2005
Speaker: Don McCluskey
LEDs: Lighting the Future

LED’s, or light-emitting diodes, are being used in new designs such as traffic lights, headlights, signage, architectural lighting, and toys. This presentation will start with a brief description of LEDs, and explain the advantages and risks of using LEDs in the design of a new product. It will include very basic electricity concepts, basic lighting and color concepts,the many different types of LEDs available, how LEDs are selected, how the circuits are developed, how LEDs are typically powered, and how LED products are packaged. Two generic design examples will be walked through from the conceptual stage to the final design to explain the thought process at each step, and to help you better integrate LEDs into your new product.

The Segway Human Transporter:Discussion Deam Kamen's Segway Human Transporter has been in the news many, many times in the last couple of years - since it was first introduced to the public as a product that would change the future. IRN member Rick Ricard will bring a Segway to the meeting and lead a discussion. As a group, we'll analyze the Segway technology - what is does, how it does it and how successful the technology is. We'll also look at what happened to the Segway in the market and its impact on transportation.

Innovators' Resource Network

Promoting Innovation, Enterprise, and Invention