IDEAS CLUB ( Bendigo ) www.inventorvic.com.au The Inventors Association of Australia (Vic) Postal address: 191 Wattle Valley Rd. Camberwell Vic. 3124 Phone President 0418538604 Email: [email protected] Thanks to this month’s Patent Attorney Wed. Jul 2nd 2014 45 Miller Cres. Mount Waverley Warren Chandler - Baxter IP 9/440 Collins St Melbourne 3000 P: 96022288, E:[email protected] Newsletter by Peter Barrett Patent Tutorial W Product Videos For Inventors GARY HEGEDUS PRODUCTIONS www.ghproductions.com.au Proud sponsor of the IAA (VIC). 56 Smedley Road Park Orchards Vic. Email [email protected] Videos are one of the most useful tools for the inventor wanting to advertise or launch a product. They can be sent via email, opened in websites and played on laptop computers or ipads. Tel: 98762860 Mob: 0408 994 040 arren Chandler told us it is not necessary to develop a prototype, but you can file an application claiming the invention. It should be remembered though that we cannot just claim the concept but must know generally how the invention will be put into practice. That does not mean you need to be a plastics manufacture, or electronic engineer, or chemist but that generally you know how to apply the invention. The great benefit of a patent application is that you are defining your invention and being given an official patent application number and an official filing date. You have, through your patent application, defined a new asset, which you can try to exploit. Although you do not yet have a granted patent with patent rights – you are “first in line” and no-one can jump in front of you. Application or disclosure under confidentiality agreements? It is usually possible to disclose your idea to a prospective manufacturer or marketer under the protection of a confidentiality agreement. There are Page Content 1. Sponsors, Patent Attorney 2. Main Meeting, Inventor of the month—Peter Cooper Stiff Strap 3. Video Presentation 4. Problem Corner, General Discussion, New Grants/Vouchers available, Coming up.. How to licence your product Patent attorney Warren Chandler at home with inventors some limitations to this approach because some companies you might wish to approach are so large or have extensive research facilities that they do not want to sign confidentiality agreements. They could consider that a similar idea might come from other sources than from you and so believe you should rely on your patent application and the “first in line” date that this document provides. From Idea to Product then Business Plan to Investor Take your business to the next level with Videos sell! BusinessPlans.com.au Proud sponsor of the IAA (Vic) Call Nigel Catt for special offers to IAA (Vic) members on 1300 630 Another concern is that to rely on confidentiality agreements it is necessary to define what subject matter is being maintained confidential. This can sometimes require an extensive disclosure of the invention. Therefore it is beneficial instead to fully describe the invention in a patent application. As patent applications are not published for 18 months you can still approach with confidentiality agreements and referring to the invention as described in your patent application. Patent application or “grace period”? In the new law of “grace periods” sometimes inventors wish to rely on such provisions, but Warren believes they should be considered as emergency provisions. “Grace periods” are where your own earlier disclosure of the invention over the previous 12 months, will not invalidate your patent application. There are some limitations to this saving provision, first you must proceed to a complete application and not the usual provisional patent application. Second it is only your disclosure and not third party disclosure of your idea or similar ideas. The safest approach usually is to claim your invention at a particular date by filing a patent application first. However we can always review exceptions and available emergency actions when required. Bendigo Inventor Awards has a short video on applying division winner, plus there is mentoring for all finalists. Having looked at the judging criteria there is a 30% weighting to inventions that will benefit the city of Bendigo. Something to keep in mind when submitting your application. The next big competition for inventors is SHEEPVENTION held from the 4th to 5th August at the Hamilton exhibition and conference centre. Invention competitions include home and garden, young designer fashion awards, animal health and safety awards. Rod Sheppard member of IAA (Vic) was last year's winner of the major award. For information: visit www.HamiltonShowgrounds.com.au/sheepventionabout.asp. Main meeting Inventor of the month competition: Peter O'Shannessy chaired this month's main meeting and discussion; he firstly thanked Warren Chandler and presented him with a bottle of wine for an excellent patent discussion then he moved on to welcome our new visitors one of whom I sat next to and he told me he was very pleased he joined. Peter thanked our sponsors and detailed the welcome package available to new members as well as the unique benefits IAA (Vic) can offer all its members. Peter mentioned Innovic’s recent newsletter to which there was a link included in the last email. We are advertising each other’s organisation and of particular notice was Idea Connection. If you want to sell your IP, seek solutions to problems or get paid to solve R&D or challenges for more information go to http://tinyurl.com/q2zofhc. The next item discussed was the Bendigo Inventor Awards - applications open on 1st July. For information on how to apply and judging guidelines go to www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/inventor. On Thursday, July 31 there is a support session where entrants can speak with business and industry professionals, State and Federal government committee members and judges who can answer your questions. It is also a great opportunity to network. IAA(Vic) Committee members Peter O’Shannessy, Peter Barrett and Frank Bishop attended this session last year and we will have a presence this year too with a stand where we will market the IAA (Vic) to inventors who are currently not members of the Bendigo ideas club or the IAA (Vic). Bona fide inventors will receive a special discount on becoming members to encourage them to join up on the night. These awards are definitely worth entering - the winner of the top award will receive $10,000 and $5,000 goes to each Peter Cooper with Stiff Strap - a quick locking device for surfboards After completing his Electricians apprenticeship Peter worked all over the place from Melbourne to Gove and Port Hedland. After returning to Melbourne he started his own electrical contracting Business which has been quite successful. An idea had been going through his mind for many years, just churning it over because he says he never really came up with a workable design before, but he now has. Peter Cooper preparing to present his new invention Stiff Strap He finally cracked it and after receiving some very positive feed back he is pushing ahead with manufacturing. The genesis for Peter's idea was from when he went surfing having to put his surfboard inside the car when he went to the pub for lunch to stop it being stolen. His invention is a roof rack with a forward fixed receptacle for the nose of the board and a strap that locks in to the edge of the rack and due to the small amount of flex in most boards and where most boards are of equal thickness, the board is held very tightly. This adjustable strap can only be cut using bolt cutters. With modern cars there is no gutter along the roof so along the centre section of the rack are plates to help with fixing the rack to the roof. One problem he has is finding a clamp to hold the strap to the board, something that can be screwed down a bit like a tensioning clamp. He is working with Nigel Catt one of our sponsors in getting finance and executing a sales plan. Peter intends to market his product to the west coast of America and to Australian outdoor stores such as Anaconda, Ray's Tent City and surf shops and is hoping to have a stand at the upcoming surfing competition at Bells Beach. He also feels that his device would be ideal for securing ladders and has suggested the market for that would be paint shops and electrical shops like Middys. Securing kayaks is another market - he is hoping to have a stand at the next Murray River challenge- where a lot of kayaks could get stolen and he is also investigating the possibility of a built in alarm on the buckle of the strap that inserts into the rack that would alert the owner via a wireless connection to a beeper that someone is attempting to steal the surfboard. Low-cost 3D drawing program Peter Cooper used a powerful but affordable ($89.00) 3-D Peter Cooper over supper demonstrates the inner workings of his Stiff Strap. He is showing the clamp he designed in 3 D using Cheetah a new and affordable 3D editor but unfortunately is available for Mac users only. low-cost program for drawing objects in 3D. Unfortunately it is currently only available for Mac users. The company Peter O'Shannessy said he employs for all his 3-D prototyping is Redeye (formerly RapidPro) in Dandenong. Black Box flight recorder invented by IAA (Vic) Ex member David Warren. Commercialised in the USA by Honeywell Video Presentation This picture shows buckles that are inserted into the rack And the bolts for attaching the rack to a car roof editor with an easy learning curve called Cheetah to make the parts for his invention. Its output files have the same extension (STL) as is used in 3D printers making it an ideal We then watched a video of famous of Australian inventions which you can view at http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=wF8Stmp-ZJo. Here is a brief summary of what we saw: David Warren's (ex IAA(Vic) guest speaker) blackbox for recording fight data that was rejected by CASA and the RAAF so it had to be commercialised in the UK and USA. Victa Lawnmower, Penicillin developed by Florey which in its time saved over 50 million lives, Hills hoist, ultrasound, aircraft slides, Cochlear ear implant, pacemakers, sister Kenny who changed the lives of polio patients in the 30s to 50s by introducing exercise to their treatment regime, Kiwi boot polish, the extremely robust "Owen Gun", Bliss symbols for reading and last but certainly not least CSIRO’s WiFi. Problem corner with Jack Kerrin Tonight Jack had problems of his own where a company was trying to take without paying, a hundred sets of his board game Motus. These offshore scammers asked Jack to send his goods via their own dispatch company, and would pay using a Visa card. This scam works by the dispatch company not getting a signature from the recipient for the goods delivered by Jack. They tell Visa later that the goods were never received, so the money is reimbursed back into their account, and Jack would have sent goods for which he would not have been paid. Jack made two good points - if it sounds too good to be true it probably is, and if a customer wants to divert from the normal ways of doing business such as their own transport means rather than a signature –on-delivery system then this is a red flag and you should beware. General discussion: In the absence of a guest speaker Peter moderated a general discussion which focussed on "packaging". Peter O'Shannessy said for his business he uses SPG packaging. He has found them reliable and they will tailor make a specific solution. On their website at www.specialtypackaging.com.au you can specify the type of box you want and request a quotation. Other members have used Able packaging. You can buy the form the box is cut from and this is yours to use again when next time you reorder. Able can custom print on your packaging or just plastic shrink wrap it. For more information go to www.ablepackaging.com.au. Packaging comes in many different forms such as “blister packs” which are molded to the shape of your product and enclose it in clear plastic, or boxes that can either be printed on the outside, or a printed sticker can be placed on each box, or a paper sleeve that slides over the box can be printed onto or shrink wrap plastic which is printed can be placed around a box. The meeting finished with a very humorous video of a “better mousetrap” where a teenager tried to shoot a house mouse with a BB gun. For a second look go to; https://www.facebook.com/video/embed? video_id=10151823097153841 New Grants / Vouchers available: "Investing into Manufacturing Technology" Up to $250,000 is available on a competitive basis to assist manufacturers to purchase and integrate new technologies that will: improve productivity and competitiveness; strengthen capability; and encourage wider and ongoing innovation. 25% funded by the Victorian Government. IMT is not intended to support projects which primarily involve: • routine replacement or upgrade of plant and equip ment using simple technologies • activities that would be undertaken in the normal course of business, such as capacity expansion R&D and commercialisation. ROUND 5 NOW OPEN VIC Grow Your Business Vouchers for specialist consultants • Business Strategic Review • Business Development Plan • Business Development Plan - Mentoring Enterprise Connect Federal free business reviews up to $20,000 now part of Entrepreneurs Infrastructure Program Small Business Advisory Services (SBAS) Small Business Advice Line and Mentoring Service 2014 Rural water awards - nominations http://www.melbournewater.com.au/getinvolved/events/ Pages/2014-Rural-water-awards.aspx Sunday, 31 August 2014 Have you developed or adapted clever farming ideas that led to better water use outcomes on your property? Did those innovations deliver water savings or greater productivity for your business? If you’re an innovative Victorian rural water user, enter the 2014 Rural Water Awards for the chance to win recognition and cash prizes! Nominations for the Rural Water Awards open Tuesday 1 July 2014 and recognise water innovation at regional and state levels. Nominations are open in four categories: Irrigation district water users Groundwater users Surface water users Community and education groups Regional winners will compete against the other regional winners in their category for a state prize. $2,000 cash prize for State winners $500 cash prize for State runners up $500 cash prize for Regional winners Awards will be formally presented at a luncheon held on Friday 5 December 2014 at the RACV City Club in Melbourne. Coming Up…. Don’t miss next month’s meeting. Our guest speaker (if you are old enough to remember) is a past band member of Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs—Tony Barber. He has designed soft toy versions of BANANAS in PYJAMAS, and BLINKY for ABC television plus a host of other designs and illustrations. Debbie Dash (Inventor of Toybo)—I hope you are reading this !! Tony has licenced many items without patenting and he has published many books. Tony has promised to share some of his secrets with us because he is getting on in age and wants to pass on some of his knowledge. See you at our next meeting Wed. July 2nd 2014