Inventors Forum

Got the world's greatest idea for a golf club with sonar tracking? How about a motorcycle lock, a la The Club? Or a squeegee for an oil dipstick? Gene Scott, president of the Inventors Forum in Irvine, has seen all of these products. But inventing is one thing; getting it on the store shelves is another. Many times, inventors know little about getting their ideas to the consumer. With the recession, more and more inventors are out there trying to get a big company to license their product.

A bill making its way through Congress calls for a significant change in the way patents are awarded. It would switch the U.S. from a system that favors the first person to invent an item or process to one that would instead give preference to the first person to file for the patent. It's a change that has independent inventors worried that it would make the process more complicated and expensive, and thus give an advantage to large firms. "It does add to the anxiety, it does make it feel like more of a race" to the patent office, said Minna Ha of Arcadia, who has a patent application pending for a cosmetic case designed to hold makeup refills.

Perhaps it's genetically coded into all of us, this desire to invent or to perfect. To build the better mousetrap. As a kid, I imagined a device to eliminate parallel parking. You pulled up to the space, hit a switch, and temporary wheels, like airplane landing gear, emerged from under your car and moved you laterally into the space. I never figured out what happens to your regular tires during the process but knew someone else could. Surely, someone still is working on that.

Patent Debate Friday: You would think that inventors only keep to themselves, shrouding their ideas in uttermost secrecy. But members of the Inventors Forum in Irvine meet every month to share their plans for everything from magician stage props to compact disk holding cases. They get advice on how to improve products, where to find financing and how to write a business plan.

Perhaps it's genetically coded into all of us, this desire to invent or to perfect. To build the better mousetrap. As a kid, I imagined a device to eliminate parallel parking. You pulled up to the space, hit a switch, and temporary wheels, like airplane landing gear, emerged from under your car and moved you laterally into the space. I never figured out what happens to your regular tires during the process but knew someone else could. Surely, someone still is working on that.

The room grew silent as Maria Deslierres rose to speak. "I just got tired of standing in airports," she explained. Then she unveiled her solution: the perfect luggage cart for the post-9/11 world, one with a fold-up seat for those long waits in airport security lines. "We've had the patent for three years," Deslierres said, "but so far we haven't been able to market it." With any luck, the men and women gathered in Huntington Beach on a recent Friday will be able to help.

A bill making its way through Congress calls for a significant change in the way patents are awarded. It would switch the U.S. from a system that favors the first person to invent an item or process to one that would instead give preference to the first person to file for the patent. It's a change that has independent inventors worried that it would make the process more complicated and expensive, and thus give an advantage to large firms. "It does add to the anxiety, it does make it feel like more of a race" to the patent office, said Minna Ha of Arcadia, who has a patent application pending for a cosmetic case designed to hold makeup refills.

If you're a downsized or displaced worker interested in being trained for placement in a multimedia job, the North Orange County Community College District has just the program. The project, the only one of its kind receiving funding from the Labor Department, will help train you for multimedia jobs in entertainment, education, marketing and other areas, then help you find work.

The room grew silent as Maria Deslierres rose to speak. "I just got tired of standing in airports," she explained. Then she unveiled her solution: the perfect luggage cart for the post-9/11 world, one with a fold-up seat for those long waits in airport security lines. "We've had the patent for three years," Deslierres said, "but so far we haven't been able to market it." With any luck, the men and women gathered in Huntington Beach on a recent Friday will be able to help.

Got the world's greatest idea for a golf club with sonar tracking? How about a motorcycle lock, a la The Club? Or a squeegee for an oil dipstick? Gene Scott, president of the Inventors Forum in Irvine, has seen all of these products. But inventing is one thing; getting it on the store shelves is another. Many times, inventors know little about getting their ideas to the consumer. With the recession, more and more inventors are out there trying to get a big company to license their product.

Patent Debate Friday: You would think that inventors only keep to themselves, shrouding their ideas in uttermost secrecy. But members of the Inventors Forum in Irvine meet every month to share their plans for everything from magician stage props to compact disk holding cases. They get advice on how to improve products, where to find financing and how to write a business plan.

You could prosper in the field of wacky inventions. --Peking Noodle Co. As resourceful as he is, home-product inventor David Hanacek knows to take advice where he finds it. This has included fortune cookies, which he says have uncannily affirmed his career choice (while warning him against glibly giving away his ideas to other entrepreneurs). And it has included Hanacek's 6-year-old son, John, who insisted that colors be used in Dad's new line of caulking-gun nozzles.