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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (May 24, 1962)
o MEDFORD JML TRIBUNE.MEDFORD. OREGON THURSDAY, MAY 24. 1962 Nenhf Invented Products Play Important Part in U.S. Economy By Ethan Grant Manager, Sharon Patents Co., t Mediord Few people are aware of the importance of the nation's economy of newly invented products, or of the vast num ber being patented and intro duced on today's market. More than one-third of the products we now use were in vented since World War II. Time Magazine recently sta ted that "nearly 75 per cent of the U. S. growth in sales volume in the next three years will come from new products." There has never been a period when the inventor has played so important a role in the advance of living stadards, or when he was reaping great er rewards for his ingenuity. A lot of that ingenuity is be ing uncovered here in Jack son county by Sharon Patents company, which provides a new products development service that includes free ad vice to would-be inventors with ideas they think might be of value. Career Starts Since this writer's career with inventors began in De troit more than 30 years ago, he feels justified in the belief that they contribute greater over-all benefits to humanity than any other single class. For in truth they accomplish what others can't, and fre quently what a majority think is impossible. The scientist and the en gineer and the physician and the educator can all produce theories and probabilities, but It is the inventor who pro- Discover the Mapleine Secret duces the ways and the means ' for their pracical use. I In Detroit, where so many impossibilities have been i ovjrcom by inventive gen ius, big industrialists, when faced with an "imposibility, often still follow a pattern of accomplishment established back in 1898 by the late Alex Dow, when he was president of what was then Edison Il luminating Company (now the Detroit Edison Company) and which he served for 42 years. His firm was one of five power companies in that lo-l cality, and its chief engineer! was a young man named ' Henry Ford. An engineer-inventor him self, Dow contributed a wealth of new ideas to the in dustrialization of the world's motor capital. He was a close friend of Thomas Edison, whose slogan was "There's a better way to do it-find it." Dow knew that only one of the five power companies in Detroit could survive and that it would be the one that could contribute the most. The other four companies disappeared. When he had a technical MAPLEINE MAPLEINE I I if E&smal in". 6 EZjSEl B 1 Make your own betler-than-bottled syrup at much less cost. Simply pout 1 cup boiling water over 2 cups sugar, add H teaspoon Mapleine. Wonderful flavor and ' aroma from a secret formula. Find Mapleineintheblue and white box. Mapltint is 4 ugiilirid Irsdtmark Lumber Hearing Moved To Eugene PortIand-(UPII-A change In location of the Senate Com merce committee's June 4 meeting from Portland to Eu gene has been requested by t h e Lumbermen's Economic Survival committee. The group represents oper ators in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Califor nia. Some of the hardest hit businesses are in southwest Oregon, the committee said. It added that Portland is out of the way for this area and there is pressure from Lane, Coos and Jackson counties to have the hearings moved to Eugene. The Senate Commerce com mittee recently held a similar hearing in Washington which was scheduled for Seattle and later moved to Olympia. Some 200 persons attended. MISHAP KILLS GIRL Wallington, N.J. - IUPH - A 9-year-old girl was injured fa tally Wednesday night when a pole on which she was play ing snapped off and crushed her. Mary Ann Kwiecien, a fourth grader at t h e Sacred Heart school, had been swing ing on a rope attached to the 20-foot-high pole when the ac cident happened, police said. piX)lem he couldn't solve Dow referred it to his re search department, which was staffed by more than 100 of the best engineering brains he could hire. But it was not un usual for him to present a problem that stumped them, i "Very well, gentlemen," hci would say, "then I have no other recourse but to assign the job to someone who does not know it can't be done." Technical Knowledge And if often meant some one without technical know ledge, but always a man Dow knew could think for himseif. Dow knew a large number of the world s greatest technical achievements were the inven tions of men who didn't know "it couldn't be done." Edison once said, "Genius is 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration." Inventors generally are found in two classes. One creates a single new product and hangs on to it desperately demanding far more than it actually is worth. "This pa tent will make me a cool mil lion," he tells himself, and no manner of argument can dis lodge that belief. There are, to be sure, in ventions worth "a cool mil lion," but they are extremely rare and are almost never bought for that amount in Housing Trends Is Subject of Course Eugene - "Housing Trends in the 60's" will be explored in a short course at the Uni versity of Oregon next month. From June 25-29, the course in home planning and con struction will be held under the sponorship of the uni versity's schools of business administration and architec ture and allied arts. The course is designed especially to give mortgage lenders, real estate appraisers, brokers, investors, developers, building contractors, parks and recreation personnel, savings and loan associations, practicing architects, property managers and firms selling building materials a practical understanding of current de velopments and future trends in housing. Conducting the pro gram will be staff members from both schools. Stanley W. Bryan, professor of architec ture, will discuss the changing trend in housing, house con struction materials, the manu factured house and the con flict between good design and high profits. cash. The invent who ex pects it is generally an im practical dreamer. In another class is the true genius-typP inventor who cre-i ates useful products and. byi selling or licensing their rights intelligently, receives substantial returns in royal ty over long periods. He is that practical minded' fellow who is endowed with a com pulsive urge to continue seek- ing new and better ways and things. Few Inventors can know the actual commercial worth of a patent, nor can even an expert determine that worth without a lot of time-consuming research. The successful introduction and marketing of a new product is a compli cated business that takes years to learn and master. The report of one rather simple little product owned by Sharon Patents Company required several months of re search before it could be fi nalized. The complete file of accumulated facts filled four thick files and the condensed report itself required 39 typed pages and drawings under some 40 separate head ings. Newly Invented Product Obviously, success of a new ly invented product calls for a brand of talent and exper ience few inventors have. And the tragic part of it is that so many of them lacking compe tent patent development help and advice, so often spend anywhere from $300 up to a thousand or more for patents that turn out to be worthless. While many patents them selves are often worthless, even an unpatented idea can be of great value if expertly processed and assigned to the right interests. Otherwise, it has no value and little legal protection, particularly if re vealed to the wrong people. Many persons have lost valu able patentable ideas by offer ing them to firms under the mistaken belief they have cash value a"d their disclos ure obligates the firm to pay for them. An idea, however, may be partly protected for a limited time, if sufficiently described in writing, dated and signed and has the signatures of two or more responsible witnesses. But the document still will only prove the inventor had the idea as of the date indi cated, and a lawsuit involving an alleged theft often is a waste of time, depending on a number of factors that may be brought to light. Best Protection The best protection, of course, is a patent grant that has been issued on the basis of a well constructed applica-j tion. Just now, it takes from two to three years to j?ct a patent, for the Patent Office ' is buried under a backlog of some 200,000 new applica tions. But a good p'.ent applica tion on file does provide the I best temporary protection of. an idea. i An application should be prepared by a competent at torney or patent agent who has met the qualifications re quired by the Patent Office for such practice. The present Patent Office directory con tains the names and addresses of 24 such attorneys and agents in Oregon. All but two are located in Portland. Assigned Number When a patent application has been accepted by the Pa tent Office, it is assigned an official registration number. The inventor may then use the term "Patent Pending" in connection with the manufac ture and sale of his new prod uct. Use of the term without an official registration num ber is illegal. Whether an idea is patent able depends on a number of factors. Even though it has already been patented, you may still get a patent of your own. Many patents have been granted to inventors who have simply found a belter way of producing the results for which an original patent was granted, lhat "better way" means the discovery or development of new basic features. And that word "basic" is mighty important to invent- salute td ors. It means tjt basic idea must be entirely new and dif ferent from the basic ideas contained in all prior paitnts. Inventor Has Idea For example, a local in ventor had an idea for an im provement on a device that has been in common use for more than half a century. A search of the Patent Office records disclosed 16 patents had been issued for the de vice. All but the last had ex pired and it had another seven years to run. It was the only patent standing in the way of an application for the one the Medford inventor wanted. A close study of that pat ent revealed the key to what could be done. Its coverage of the device was so complicated that the device was impracti cal from the standpoint of commercial value, to the in ventor or anyone else. The local inventor, by streamlining his design right down to its best elemental features, was able to present sufficient novelty for consid eration by the Patent Office of a possible new "basic." The application was ac cepted and officially regis tered. Sharon Patents company is only interested in certain types of new products, pref erably the most novel and useful. Some ideas submitted would require entirely too much technical work and more market study time than they would be worth, even if a patent search revealed fa vorable patentable possibili ties. The point is, an idea has to be practical, eg, such that by further development it cSii be made practical. a Patents and ideas presented to Sharon Patents Coivfany are carefully studied. Even the most practice are fre- B 7 qiently in need of further de-1 full and lasting value that can velopment. be protected over a long per il is no secret that j lot of i iod of time. That one defect, money is wasted on patents.' hich can be quickly spotted A large number are found .by an experienced patent lacking in the basic features man, is the reason why so that are necessary to provide many patents are worthless. Fins Seafood & Poultry 121 W. 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