By Andrew Thomson
Once a month, they gather in a student lounge at the University of Ottawa. Some are experienced creators with several patents to their name, while others are coming for the first time to discuss their ideas and learn more about the process.
They are members of Ottawa’s inventing fraternity, looking for the next idea that will take the world by storm, and making sure to keep their own creations a secret until a patent is filed.
The Ottawa Inventor’s Association has been meeting like this for the past 16 years, providing a forum for local inventors to network, bounce ideas off each other, and learn about issues ranging from building prototypes to marketing.
The association’s president is Gene Shershen, an Elgin Street psychologist who says the association’s membership ranges from “homemakers to engineers and everyone in between,” with no particular educational background as a necessary requirement.
At the group’s recent meeting in early November, one member discussed his license plate identification system, a computer program that could help authorities in the fight against stolen vehicles, but also result in more parking tickets for tardy motorists. Another talked about how he believed he has solved an ancient engineering mystery: how the Egyptians built the Great Pyramids. There was also a demonstration of a simple-looking paper airplane that flies like a boomerang.
Ottawa’s inventors are both young and old and mostly male. During breaks in the meeting, the 20 members talked to each other about issues such as how to move from an original idea to an actual invention and how to get the new product out into the marketplace.
Ottawa engineer Mike Trzecieski has had a few inventions patented, including a motorized umbrella that aligns itself with sensors pointing at the sun. The result is the maximum shade possible at all times of day for beachgoers or picnic fanatics.
He says he joined the association to get more insight on his inventions and gain marketing knowledge.
“It’s 95 per cent marketing,” he says. “Any product you can market successfully can be sold.”
Trzecieski estimates he spent about 150 hours actually producing his umbrella’s design, but putting together patent applications and a business plan has taken about 1,000 hours.
According to inventors, it’s the business side of inventing that determines a product’s ultimate fate, not the ingenuity involved in creating the invention itself.
“Inventing is easy, marketing is hard,” says Guy Brunet, a Limoges landscaper who’s trying to find investors for his project, a distance marker for golf courses that’s more visible for players.
Shershen has patented several inventions, including a flashlight that doubles as a continuity tester for fuses and light bulbs, a vocabulary game named Wordstock, and workbooks that help students with reading, math and spelling.
Association members must sign a legally binding agreement promising they won’t disclose any non-patented projects discussed at meetings.
“There is paranoia. I don’t disclose anything until I file the patent application,” says Trzecieski. “As good as (a non-disclosure agreement) is, for the amount of money, it’s worth protecting and having peace of mind.”
Trzecieski helps individual and corporate clients seeking patents for hi-tech products. He says writing a patent can be the biggest expense of all, typically costing between $4,000 and $10,000 depending on the invention’s technical complexity.
“You can (write) a patent yourself, but it costs a lot of money and it might not get accepted . . . you need good technical writing skills,” he says.
Shershen says living in Ottawa has its advantages for inventors, including access to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, which oversees the patent process. The city’s two universities and Algonquin College have engineering and other technological facilities. There is also the National Research Council, where inventors can meet scientific and technical experts face-to-face.
Although the Ottawa region is one of Canada’s largest metropolitan areas, Shershen says the first place inventors look for profit is south of the border, where the potential market is ten times larger.
“If most inventors can get something selling in the United States they don’t necessarily care about Canada.”