An insatiable hunger to create, create, create
Race for the next `big thing' is torrid as new century hits it stride
By Mike Brunker
Reporter
MSNBC
Updated: 6:53 p.m. ET April 16, 2004
If necessity is the mother of invention, Americans sure are a needy lot. No matter
how many breakthrough technologies, time -saving gadgets or gee-whiz gewgaws we
hatch, it seems our craving for creation can never be satisfied.
As a new century hits its stride, the race to give birth to the next "big idea" shows no
signs of slowing, with tens of thousands of would-be Edisons pushing themselves
mercilessly to get their product or idea before the public, the ultimate arbiter of an
invention's utility.
Many are laboring in corporate R&D labs, operating in creative teams and exploring
advances in fields that didn't even exist a decade ago. But a surprising number of
those pursuing better mousetraps and other existence-easing contrivances are still
garage and bedroom tinkerers.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which is uniquely positioned to gauge our
powerful urge to innovate, registered 355,418 patent applications in fiscal 2003. It
granted 189,587 patents in the same period to previously filed inventions that were
judged to be "new, useful and not obvious" ­ the standard by which such intellectual
property protections are granted.
An avalanche of patent applications
Both figures have more than doubled over the past 15 years, and contribute to an
average wait of a little more than two years from the time of submission of a patent
application to the final decision on whether a patent will be issued, said Nick Godisi,
commissioner for patents.
Sheer numbers aren't the only reason the
agency's 3,500 patent examiners are
buried under a backlog. In the golden age
of technology, many patent applications
have become incredibly complex and
require extensive investigation to
determine if they are, in fact, unique.
"We had one application for a
biotechnology product filed not too long
ago on CDs that, if we'd accepted it on
paper, would have run 6 million pages,"
Godisi said, adding that the library-like length was required to list long genetic
sequences.
"The Wright brothers patent was five pages of specs and a few sketches," he said,
clearly longing for the good old days.
As evidenced by the agency's database of ideas both great and very small, we wake
up inventing (breakfast bacon chips and patties -- U.S. Patent No. 6,699,520), spend
the day inventing (convertible hat ­ U.S. Patent No. 6,704,940) and go to bed
inventing (arm pillow ­ U.S. Patent No. 6,691,353). And as that list suggests, the vast
majority of our creations never find a market.
`An extraordinarily inventive age'
But almost certainly, experts say, somewhere in the coursing thought stream are
ideas that will alter our lives and society, just as the cellular phone and personal
computer have in recent decades.
"This is an extraordinarily inventive age," said Arthur Molella, director of the Lemelson
Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian Institution's
National Museum of American History. "I think we're feeling changes such as people
felt at the beginning of the last century, when they suddenly had the ability to travel
all around the world."
As ingrained as the act of creation is in the United States ­ the Patent and Trademark
Office is enshrined in the Constitution ­ the "Eureka!" moment that sets inventor apart
from consumer remains a mystery. And predicting where the next great breakthrough
will occur is likewise impossible, though fields like biotechnology, nanotechnology,
robotics and materials science often are mentioned as most likely to yield the next
great technological leap.
"There is a lot of serendipity in a great invention," Molella said in explaining the futility
of attempting such forecasts. "You can go systematically from here to there, but you
also have to be one of these people who are ready to see opportunity when it presents
itself."
A shift toward high technology
But the odds of a revolutionary discovery occurring in a science-heavy field probably
are greater simply because high-tech inventions make up a greater proportion of
patents than they did a quarter century ago.
For most of the last century, one-third of all patent applications typically were
mechanical, one-third were chemical and one-third were electronic. But today, nearly
half are electronic or computer-related, Godisi said.
The corporate R&D lab has
supplanted the garage
workshop as the venue where
most patentable ideas get their
start. But 25 percent of patents
granted each year still go to the
so-called independent
inventors, a percentage that
has held steady over the past
decade, according to Patent and
Trademark Office spokesman Richard Maulsby.
In fact, the small-time inventor appears to be making something of a comeback,
according to Bob Lougher, executive director of the United Inventors Association, a
non-profit educational organization that aims to "make independent inventors
smarter."
"For a long time, industry didn't want anything to do with the independent inventor
because they were too unrealistic in their expectations," said Lougher. "But now,
corporate America is reaching out to the independent inventor."
Reaching out to independent inventors
As an example of this phenomenon, Lougher points to a "product hunt" currently
being conducted by the Dial Corp., a Scottsdale, Ariz.,-based consumer products and
food company best known for its namesake soap line.
The search for new consumer products began with a call for submissions on the United
Inventors Association Web site and drew hundreds of applications from inventors, all
of whom needed to at least have patents pending and a prototype of their product to
qualify.
BY THE NUMBERS Patent scorecard
Top ten companies by industry with the most patents.
* Overall
* Aerospace
* Automotive
* Biotech
* Chemicals
* Computers
* Electronics
* Semiconductors
* Telecommunications
Rank Company Number
of
patents
(2003)
1. IBM 3,434
2. Hitachi 2,189
3. Canon 2,061
4. Matsushita
Electric
1,944
5. Hewlett-
Packard
1,755
6. Micron
Technology
1,712
7. NEC 1,666
8. Intel 1,606
9. Samsung 1,577
10. Sony 1,539
Source: Technology Review
* Print this
The list was subsequently trimmed to 65 products, whose creators are now in the
process of creating demonstration videotapes or CDs showing how their creations can
be used. For the final round, Lougher said, a smaller number of inventors will be
invited to the company's headquarters to demonstrate their concepts for Dial brass
and the media.
The corporate hunts, unheard of until a few years ago, contain a valuable lesson for
would-be inventors nursing a dream of building a better mousetrap, Lougher said.
"Nobody buys ideas," he said. "They are only interested in something tangible."
But there are those who pay close attention to the creative process.
Officials at the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio, believe that reaching
out to young people is crucial to encouraging a willingness to "think outside the box"
when it comes to problem solving.
Programs aim to spark creativity among kids
In addition to honoring American inventors who "changed our lives or bettered our
society in a substantial way," according to spokeswoman Rini Paiva, the hall sponsors
national inventing contests and camps for schoolkids to help foster creative thinking.
"One of the big challenges in getting people to think in an innovative way is to start
before they are adults, before they've closed their minds," she said.
While Lougher, the head of the inventors association, endorses the programs aimed at
students, he also notes that inspiration is just as likely to strike later in life.
Consider the late Jay Morton, who died in 2003 at 92. A child actor (he played "Stinky"
in the "Our Gang"/"Little Rascals" movies), Morton later went into the television
production business and earned historic-footnote status as the writer who created the
memorable introduction for the original "Superman" series ­ "Iťs a bird; Iťs a plane,"
etc.
But Morton's true creative gift wasn't revealed until many years later, when he cut his
foot on a discarded soft drink pull tab while walking on a public beach. As he waited in
line at a first-aid station along with other similarly injured beachgoers, he birthed the
idea that made him a millionaire many times over ­the aluminum can pop-top (U.S.
Patent No. 5,062,542).
Why was Morton the one who saw opportunity in bloody feet? That, said Lougher, is
part of the mystery of the creative process.
"An inventor is anybody," said Lougher. "You've got successful kid inventors ... and
you've got grandmothers and everybody in between. Almost everybody has an idea or
an improvement. The only difference is that inventors do something with their idea."