Filed under: Design, Invention, inspiration, irishblogs, technology | Tags: Levitat, Design, Cork, Ireland, tech, irishblogs, mobile phone, quest, sell, dream, early adaptors, imagine, man, moon, mobile, ultimate, phone, promise, support, style, laid
A mobile phone that:
- lets you make free calls (over the Internet)
- lets you surf the web at high speed
- takes high resolution photographs and video
- stores and plays all your music
- works as a satellite navigation system
- is a mobile games console
- is a mobile PC
- is a mobile video player; even connecting wirelessly with your home cinema projector and transmits high resolution video with surround sound
- is easy to learn and simple to use
That’s the phone I want. That’s the phone that has been promised to me since mobile phones first became popular. That’s the phone that we are fast approaching. But that is not the phone that has been in my pocket all these years.
What I don’t understand is how the phone companies managed to sell us this dream while supplying us the unreliable, expensive and under-delivering phones we have all been buying for the past 10 years.
We bought mobile phones before the networks that let them work were fully developed… We bought camera phones before the pictures they took were recognisable…
I want to know how they did it. How can I replicate it? How can I sell a product that I can conceive now, but won’t be able to deliver fully until 10 years from now?
I can see the tech-loving “early adaptors” buying something new for the excitement of what it is to become; but how did the mobile phone companies drag the rest of us along for the ride?
Imagine what could be created if every under-developed idea was supported like this… A man on the moon is nothing.
Filed under: Design, blog, irishblogs | Tags: Levitat, Design, Cork, irishblogs, feedback, layout, theme, blog, custom style sheet, css, custom, font, comment, links, option, change, happy
I’m not yet 100% happy with the look of this blog. I’m going to be playing around with it for a few days, so forgive me if it looks a mess at any point… I’m probably just changing to a new theme or something.
I haven’t yet bought the ‘Custom Style Sheet’ option. I want to see if I can get away with using a standard theme first.
I’d like to know what ye think about the look and usability of the blog at the moment. Is everything easy to find? I was told my original layout made it very difficult to find the ‘comment’ button… This one seems to make that part easy, but does it make something else difficult?
- Is the font size okay?
- Are there enough links etc on the sidebar?
- Are there others that should be there?
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Filed under: Design, Invention, irishblogs, round-up | Tags: Levitat, Invention, Design, patent, BoilingPoint™, Cork, startup, tom peters, millions, irishblogs, innovation, review, round-up, week, feedback, topics, wow, week 10, extract, tech-bubble, blogging
My first week blogging. There have been no comments yet on the content, so I don’t know how I’m doing… feedback appreciated. I can even take constructive criticism!
So far I’m just trying to start a range of topics and see if any grab peoples interest… let me know. Suggestions for topics welcome too. I’m still not sure where this blogging business will lead me, but only one way to find out.
This weeks posts:
- Intro - I briefly set out what I plan to blog about
- So where to start? My latest invention… - I introduce BoilingPoint™
- Smiling is good - semi-regular fun topic, song about a new tech-bubble
- The Pursuit of WOW! - semi-regular topic, I introduce a series of extracts from Tom Peters’ book
- I have an invention worth MILLIONS!! - start of a series on how to exploit your inventions
- The Pursuit of WOW! #69 - the first extract from Tom Peters’ book… why failing is good
- Week 10, 2008 - Reviewed - the first weekly round-up to help people scan my blog for intereseting posts
Filed under: Design, Invention, irishblogs, technology | Tags: Levitat, Invention, Design, patent, Cork, Ireland, millions, irishblogs, how to, rules, cost, research, patent search
So what should you do first?
- Blog about it?
- Tell everyone down the pub?
- File a patent immediately?
- If you answered 1. Blog about it, or 2. Tell everyone down the pub, you just lost your millions. Patents are granted to you by governments, giving you (the inventor) a monopoly on using the idea in exchange for you making public your know-how. They do this so that others can learn from your work and develop other useful products on top of it. If the idea is already in the public domain, why should they give you a monopoly?
RULE 1 - do not make your idea public prior to filing a patent. (Note that the system is different in the USA, where you are allowed to make your idea public up to one year before you file a patent.)
- If you answered 3. File a patent immmediately, you just cost yourself a lot of money. Patents get expensive very quickly. You have to file separate applications in every country you want protection in… and you also need to renew each of them every year. Expect a couple of hundred Euro, every year, in every country… it adds up. If it takes 2 years to develop the idea, that’s 2 years of expensive patent fees that are unnecessary. You might run out of money before the product is ready to sell.
RULE 2 - Don’t file your patent until you have to. The ideal is to keep your idea secret, work with people under terms of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), and file your patent the day before the product hits the shelves. You might not quite manage that, but delay filing as long as possible.
So what should you do?
Step 1 is to research the idea. Has anyone done this already? Has anyone tried to do this before? Why has it not been done before? Is there a real market for this idea? How big is that market? If you are happy that the market is there and is big enough to make it worth your while, then…
Step 2 is to carry out a patent search. You can do an initial search yourself online (Esp@ceNet, USPTO) but should get a patent agent to do a final search before you commit too much money to it. Many ideas, even if they’re not on the market now, will have been tried by someone, somewhere, before. If you idea has already been tried, you won’t be able to get a patent… unless your idea brings something new to the table.
If you clear those two hurdles you might be on to something. I’ll talk about what happens next in a later post. If you are already at this stage and can’t wait, talk to a patent agent before you do anything else. Good luck.
Filed under: Design, Invention, irishblogs, technology | Tags: Levitat, Invention, Design, eco, kettle, energy, water, power, boil, patent, intellectual property, end, beginning, BoilingPoint™, Cork, Ireland, big idea
Where better to start than at the end? An end is, after-all, a new beginning… So let’s start with my latest invention, BoilingPoint™; a replacement for the electric-kettle.
BoilingPoint™ repackages the basic elements of an electric-kettle to greatly reduce both the power and water consumed.
The electric kettle is the cooking device that consumes the most electricity in the home; about 25% more than your electric hob. A major reason for this is that we overfill our kettles. If everyone in the UK only boiled the water they needed, enough energy would be saved to power all the UK’s street lighting for 7 months.
The solution to overfilling a kettle is simple… don’t use a kettle at all. With BoilingPoint™, you fill the cup that you want with water and the heating element is lowered into your cup. This way you boil exactly the amount of water you need every time.
By using BoilingPoint™ instead of a kettle you:
Reduce energy consumption - by between 30% [DEFRA] and 60% [Tefal]
Reduce wasted water - no water is discarded after sitting still in the kettle
Reduce the risk of scalding - no lifting and pouring
Increase counter space - BoilingPoint™ takes up only a little more space than a mug
Increase flavour - reboiling water reduces the oxygen content, which reduces the flavour drawn from tea-leaves. BoilingPoint™ avoids this.
For more information visit our site.
Major appliance manufacturers have already expressed serious interest, so why is this an ending instead of a beginning?
Just before Christmas we found a prior patent. Filed 25 years ago in the USA, the patent is for a similar (though not identical) device. Unfortunately, that patent is too similar to allow strong patent protection to be obtained for BoilingPoint™.
So, after a year of hard work, I have to let a good idea go. That’s one of the many risks you run when you work with inventions. You just have to learn your lessons and cut your losses, because the next big idea is just a thought away.
