A-Ha!

You were driving down the same stretch of road you traveled every day when it hit you like a rock. An idea. THE big idea. The one you’ve been searching for that will not only make everyone’s job easier, but make you rich! You can hardly wait to get home to sketch it out and start building a test unit and protecting your idea with a patent.

But is your invention really marketable? Should you begin down the long and not-inexpensive road of patents, research, testing, marketing and developing a business? A quick search of the U.S. Patent Office database revealed that 2,469 patents have been issued over the last 30 years for inventions with "pest control" in their descriptions, with 151 specifically related to termites and 129 to rodent traps. While these inventors are to be commended for taking a step toward realization of their dream, did they truly achieve or provide value for their time and money invested? Will you? How can you know?

At one time or another, virtually all pest management professionals have had thoughts they could "invent a better mousetrap." As a result, the following questions were derived from speaking with people who have patented and marketed inventions in the pest management industry as those you should ask yourself to determine whether you should start down that road.

Is there a need for your product? "If the problem is just yours or it’s not a practical problem to resolve," says Lyle Townsend, inventor of the Rodent Rock, there probably isn’t a strong enough need for the product. Townsend describes a product its inventor showed him that consisted of a plastic foam cup and a lid with a hole in it. You cook up a long piece of spaghetti, the inventor told him, then put it in the cup. When you’re out all day and can’t stop to eat, you simply suck the piece of spaghetti through the hole when you get hungry. Before investing time or money in an invention, you need to determine if there is a market for the product and if you are solving a need. (Can you even get a piece of spaghetti that long? Would people want to chew on a noodle all day?) "If you are not solving a need, don’t patent it," Townsend says. "Just produce it for yourself. Some inventions should not be marketed."

Before trying to take a product to market, advises Michael DeGinto, co-inventor of the Squirrel Evictor, "Do your homework. It has to be something that there’s a need for." DeGinto and partner William Earl had no doubt about the need for their Evictor products. Earl worked in the roofing industry and was constantly repairing squirrel damage for a number of his customers. One in particular was a $2 million L-shaped home at which the owner could not rid the attic and roof of squirrels. When Earl placed the newly developed prototype at one end of the home, and saw the squirrels run to the other end, he knew they had something. When another strobe was placed at the opposite end of the L, the squirrels were chased out completely — and have never come back.

By the morning after the first placement, the homeowner was able to sit with her coffee, for the first time since she’d owned the home, without the chattering of squirrels. Within a week, DeGinto and Earl had formed a company; within six months the product was on the market; and with the first ad placement, nationwide distribution was established. "We’ve been inundated with phone calls," DeGinto says. To them, there was no doubt about a need for their product.

IS IT TIMELY? The continuing trend toward more humane treatment of wildlife pests has been a key factor in increasing the need for the Squirrel Evictor. "People don’t want to hear that you are killing an animal," DeGinto says, explaining that with its strobe-light technology, the Evictor unit is harmless. "It doesn’t hurt animals, it annoys them."

This, combined with its ability to eliminate squirrels and other rodents from buildings within days or even hours, led Evictor Products to attain six-figure sales within seven months of putting the product on the market.

The need for a product can also change without notice:

• An example of a negative turn: Before his success with the Rodent Rock, Townsend invented a flea trap. There seemed to be a need at the time of invention, but shortly thereafter a highly effective veterinary product was introduced, Townsend says, and "the flea market virtually disappeared for the industry. It was a good product, but timing is everything and that wasn’t the time." A self-proclaimed inventor at heart, Townsend also created a car dash-mount for eight-track cassettes as a teenager, which went the same route as the eight track itself. "If the need goes away, so does the product," he says.

• An example of a positive turn: Apicide, a free-flowing dust formulation, had had some success on the market, but it was when Ficam was withdrawn that it gained a real following. Mystic Chemical’s John Gedeon first noticed the increased need through postings he read on PCT’s message board. Technicians weren’t happy with the efficacy of the products they were using and wanted a non-repellent option. Realizing the potential, Gedeon promptly began to expand Apicide’s registration into more states and increase his marketing of the product to fill the void.

Is it unique? The secret, says Jim Dreisacker, inventor of the Bat Cone, is to do your research to make sure it’s filling a void. "Try to focus on something unique that separates you from the pack."

For example, it would be difficult for a person to try to sell a new fly trap, for which there are numerous variations on the market — unless there were something unique about the invention that made it stand out from the others, and it fulfilled a need that wasn’t already being met by other products.

Is it useful and usable? KABA Corp.’s Mark Ravenelle, inventor of an electrified bird control system, invokes what he terms the "Inventor’s Creed" for determining whether a product should be brought to market. "Is it useful, usable and desirable?" In creating a product, you need to look for something that has a long, outstanding need and then develop your invention to fulfill that need in a useful and usable way, he explains.

Start with a prototype, then test it, he says. "Pay attention to how the product is going to perform and what need you’re trying to satisfy." It is important to attain a patent before talking to others about the invention, but then, he says, solicit input from others. "Be humble. Ask and listen. Use the ‘we’ word — ‘What if we did this?’ ‘What if we do that?’"

In addition, he says, "Have a lot of faith" and "Have a lot of money ready. It costs a lot of money" to bring a product to market. The patent itself can be very costly, Ravenelle warns, so before you take this first step, "you have to be sure you’ll make enough money to make it worthwhile."

Particularly in an industry where pests can cause damage and can be health hazards, "useful" and "desirable" can equate to helping society. DeGinto and Earl say their only regret regarding the Squirrel Evictor is that they did not invent it sooner. They said rodents are suspected of causing 20 percent of the fires of undefined origin, and one of these was to the home of a good friend of Earl’s, whose husband died in a house fire caused by a squirrel gnawing on a wire. "If we had developed this a year earlier, the man would not be dead," DeGinto says. "Now every time we send someone out, we think we could possibly be saving someone’s life. The money is nice, but we were guided in this invention for that. We really are helping society."

Is its value greater than the investment you will need to develop it? The questions to ask yourself, says Mike Masterson, inventor of the Termiscope, are:

1. Does the product have validity and worth that will be evident to the prospective buyer?

2. Can it be manufactured for a price that people will be willing to pay?

3. How do I manufacture the invention so that people will try it?

In addition, once you have patented the product, you need to begin talking with others and getting input. To determine whether your dream can, indeed, become reality, Masterson says, "Talk to those who will give you a true, unbiased opinion." Be wary of those who may have a vested interest, who are thinking about what they may get out of it rather than whether it is a truly viable product.

Do you have the money and the time? "No matter what it is, it will cost you something," Masterson says. Before you begin, make sure that you understand what the true cost will be, that you can see it all the way through, and that you are willing to pay the price in money and time. Then, he says, "Once you make that commitment, don’t get sidetracked. Stay focused.

"Be prepared that it’s not going to happen overnight," Masterson adds. It could take two to three years — or more — to get the product to market. For this reason, it is important to begin development, testing and making improvements as soon as the patent is filed. "Use the year and a half that it is with the patent office to start promoting it, so when the patent is issued, you can go right into production," he says.

"It costs a lot of money to invent something," says Lyle Townsend, inventor of the Rodent Rock. Inventors can become defensive when it comes to their products, he says, but you need to pull yourself away from the issue and see the individual trees within the forest. "I always bounced my ideas off someone else, even if they weren’t in the trade," he says. But in the end, he still went with his own gut instinct.

Gedeon agrees. "Have buckets of money," he advises. "If you want to market it in a meaningful way across the U.S., deep pockets help." This is particularly true for pesticide products for which registration is required, he says, explaining that registration fees can add thousands of dollars on an annual basis to the cost of a single product.

Are you perseverant? "I can’t tell you how many days I was going to say forget it," Masterson says. But through the process, he learned patience, perseverance and dedication. "You have to get in there and put your nose to the grindstone. Work like there’s nothing else out there," he said.

Ravenelle recommends that "despite the fact that they might cringe at it," inventors should write out a long-term business plan to refine the scope of the product. In addition, he says, seek out nonprofit business consultant groups, such as chambers of commerce or university associations. "Such groups can provide good critical feedback on your business development plans," he said.

For his first invention, the EZ-Klean Rodent Bait Station, Ethan Vickery found that it can also help to have a catalyst. "I think you really need a catalyst to push you over the top because the patent process is so expensive," he says. His catalyst was his father who, after listening to Vickery talk over and over about the station, said, "Either you’re going to do it or your not. Go find out what it would cost to do it."

Are you prepared for less-than-enthusiastic reactions? Not all receive the encouragement that Vickery did, and he reminds inventors to be fully prepared, evaluate the manufacturing and market potential of the product and know that it can take years to work your way through the process. And inventors can face all types of discouragement and obstacles along the way — such as Masterson’s run-in with airport security.

Masterson was taking a sample kit to a convention when security stopped it in the X-ray machine and asked Masterson to step into another room. "They were questioning me and going through the whole product like I was a terrorist," he says. "They wouldn’t believe it was a termite product." Masterson spent 45 minutes trying to convince them of its authenticity, while explosives tests were conducted on the kit. The only way he was finally let go, he says, was by telling security to look on his Web site, asking if they thought he would really have that much detail if it wasn’t real. "They were just trying to find something in it because it was so different than anything they had ever seen," he says.

Although this incident is more extreme than those faced by most inventors, any invention will certainly face its share of dissenters, particularly as you expend more time, money and resources without knowing whether you will get a return on your investment. The important thing, the inventors agree, is that you believe in the product, believe it is usable and desirable, and you are willing to commit to doing whatever it takes to make the product a success.

The author is a frequent contributor to PCT and can be reached at llupo@giemedia.com.