From the Farm to Our Table

This is how our “eating only what we can buy at the farmer’s market” idea came about. It’s far from original but in our modern world it seems a little “out there.”

A few weeks ago I was clipping coupons and shopping at a huge supermarket, with double coupons. I was buying things because I had a coupon not because it’s what I wanted to feed my family – it didn’t feel right. I felt like something needed to change but I didn’t know what to do because we really can’t afford to buy organic at “Whole paycheck” right now. Just to be clear, I have no problem with coupons or Whole Foods – I love them both.

One Saturday morning (this January) we woke up to a beautiful (hot) day, it felt like spring and made me think “we should go the farmer’s market!” We hadn’t been to the big farmer’s market in Torrance for months. There we were buying our fruit and veggies when I realized that you can get almost everything you need at the farmer’s market, from local farmers! and it’s all as fresh! as absolutely fresh as possible! without the middle man taking his cut!

At that moment a big light bulb went on. Why was I spending so much money at the store when I could be getting everything here?! Probably for less than I was spending at the grocery store using coupons! I feel I need to say at this point that I know we are extremely lucky to live in southern California where we have all of this available to us year round. I know this would not be possible in most parts of the country, especially during the winter months. I am always aware and grateful for this fact.

Obviously I had a few reservations about buying everything at the farmer’s market. Such as milk. The only milk at the farmer’s market is “raw” unpasteurized  “the way God made it” milk. “Is that even legal?” I wondered. I thought everything in this country had to be pasteurized. Isn’t that why the cheese tastes so much better in Europe? Well, as it turns out, raw or unpasteurized milk is illegal in many states but no longer here in California. O.k. so what about giving it to a one year old?

Being illegal in 18 states, it’s a controversial subject but after much research we decided the benefits outweigh the risk, actually there have been zero reported cases of illness in California from unpasteurized milk in over 25 years but several cases with pasteurized milk including some resulting in death! Here is a chart drawn up for a Los Angeles County Board of supervisors vote on permitting raw milk in the County. A growing body of evidence from university research conducted around the world suggests these nutrients help counter conditions as diverse as asthma, allergies, colitis, and diabetes. Anyway, I’m not going to preach about raw milk, I just wanted to explain our decision.

What about meat? As it turns out the people that sell eggs also sell chicken! Who knew? Apparently many people because I had to wait in line. You can buy a whole chicken or just breasts, they even have boneless skinless and it costs less than the supermarket.

There is also a fishmonger with an amazing selection of fresh fish right off the boat.

But the most intriguing find for me was J&J grass fed beef, to be completely honest, I don’t like grass fed beef. It tastes sort of weird to me, gamy I guess you would say. It reminds me of deer meat but there are many health benefits such as, higher levels of vitamin A and E, more Omega 3′s and conjugated linoleis acid which helps reduce bad cholesterol levels “LDL” and aids in the reduction of body fat mass – so I am going to see if I can get used to it, I will keep you posted. Thus far we have only tried to breakfast sausage which I actually did like because it reminded me of the deer sausage we ate growing up – yes, I am from the south, Austin Texas to be exact. One down side is that it’s more expensive than grocery store meat but, upside, less than Whole Foods meat which is where I normally buy my meat because personally I would rather not eat meat than eat growth hormones and anti-biotics, but that’s just me….

At the big Torrance farmer’s market you can also buy, amazing cheese, butter,coffee beans (roasted the day before!)

vinegar, oil, olives, nuts, dried fruit, the most awesome dates in the world from the Bautista family,

fresh squeezed juice, bread, pies, flowers, herbs and there are even several ethnic booths where you can buy delicious Greek and middle eastern fare. At the smaller Hermosa market I found a guy that sells awesome Korean stuff like miso and kim-chee but more on that later…

Greek Salad

3  Tomatoes cut in wedges, heirloom if available – a true heirloom is a cultivar that has been nurtured, selected,    and handed down from one family member to another for many generations- and they taste incredible!
3  Avocados sliced
2  Cucumber, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces, no need to peel Japanese or Persian cucumbers
1  Small red onion cut in half then thinly sliced, soak in water for 5 minutes to remove bitterness
Feta, buy the best quality feta you can find, it makes a huge difference, cut in to large chunks
Juice from one Lime
EVOO
Fresh thyme and oregano
Sea Salt – sea salt contains 100+ trace minerals missing in our diets and it tastes much better so enjoy!
Fresh ground pepper, pepper is also very good for you and freshly ground pepper is the best – experiment with  different color peppercorns.
combine all above, drizzle EVOO and squeeze lime juice over top, sprinkle thyme, oregano, sea salt and pepper and toss to coat, serve on a large platter

* Great with shrimp or scallops too!

What it Took (Part 4: The Provisional Patent) – My Journey Launching a New Business and Becoming a New Father

Welcome to my series “What it Took – My Journey Starting a New Business and Becoming a New Father.”

We’ll look back over the last 2 roller-coaster years and use my experiences with bringing the SurfShelf to market as a case study of the do’s and don’ts of starting a new business.

What does it really take to bring a new product to market? We’ll go step-by-step…

Last time we talked about doing a patent search to see if there was any prior art that would prevent you from making and selling your invention. This week we’ll talk about filing a Provisional Application for Patent, what it is and why you want to do it.

So here’s why you want to file a Provisional Patent Application ASAP

1. To receive an early effective filing date for your invention

2. It’s easy and inexpensive

3. It gives you 12 months to work on your invention before the formal patent application must be filed

4. You can use the term “Patent Pending” with you with your invention

Let’s discuss these benefits in more detail…

The provisional application for patent is an application that you file with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that does not require claims or any of the paperwork that a formal patent application does. In fact, all it really requires is for you to fill out a 2-page informational form (to be used as a cover page), sign it, and attach it to a detailed description of your invention accompanied by drawings as necessary.

When you file your Provisional Application for Patent you will receive a filing date with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This date effectively puts an official time stamp stating when you filed your patent. Note that the provisional patent application WILL NOT be reviewed by the USPTO for patentability. Also it is good for only 12 months and will expire if you do not pursue a formal patent within the 12 months after filing. But, when (and if) you do file a formal non-provisional patent, the formal patent application will be able to claim the date from the provisional application. So basically it puts stake in the ground with the USPTO that you will be able to take advantage of later if you choose.

Now, it’s important to be as detailed as you possibly can in your invention description that is included in the provisional application. The reason for this is that the formal patent application can only take advantage of the early provisional filing date if and only if the formal application is supported by the description detailed in the provisional application. In simple terms, if it’s not described in the provisional application, you can’t claim the provisional date in the formal application.

For this reason, I suggest that you brainstorm and include all of the possible different elements, features and ways your invention could possibly work that you MAY end up developing. I capitalize MAY because you are not held to anything here. Throw in the kitchen sink and when it comes time to file your formal application (after you fine tune it), hopefully you have some verbiage in the provisional application that will support the final invention you intend to develop.

And it’s inexpensive! I think the latest fee schedule shows it to be $110 for small entities for applications of 100 pages or less.

Formal non-provisional patent applications can cost tens of thousands of dollars depending on how you go about developing them (by yourself or with the help of a patent attorney) so you definitely don’t want to go down that path until you are 100% sure that your invention is commercially viable (that will be a topic of another post, don’t worry).

Because the provisional patent is cheap and easy, it allows you to defer the high cost and hard work of a formal patent application until you are completely ready. And maybe by then you have been successful raising some capital from investors to help you with the expenses (another post on how to do that is coming soon).

Lastly, by filing a provisional patent application, you are officially entitled to use the term “Patent Pending” with your invention. Once you can do this, make sure to put these words on all of your marketing materials, investor relations materials, etc. These words always seem to get people’s attention, and if that person happens to be a potential investor then it might give you an edge you need.

Here are a couple of links to the USPTO website that will be helpful with filing the provisional application:

USPTO Information re: Provisional Application for Patent. This webpage gives you all the information you will need to file with provisional including addresses, HELP phone numbers, etc.

USPTO Form for Provisional Application for Patent. This is the form you fill out and sign to use as a cover page for your invention description.

So now that you have done your patent search and determined that there are no patents out there in your way, and you’ve filed you own provisional patent application so that you are officially “Patent Pending”, it’s time to do some research to see what your market potential is.

This will be the topic of our next post – Initial Market Research

See you soon,

Randy

What it Took (Part 3) – My Journey Launching a New Business and Becoming a New Father

Part 3:  Your First Patent Searches

Welcome to my series “What it Took – My Journey Starting a New Business and Becoming a New Father.”

We’ll look back over the last 2 roller-coaster years and use my experiences with bringing the SurfShelf to market as a case study of the do’s and don’ts of starting a new business.

Last time we talked about coming up with the crazy idea and building a rudimentary prototype. This week we’ll talk about doing a quick patent search to make sure there isn’t a patent out there that will stop you from marketing and selling your product.

As I’m sure you know, a patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to a particular idea for a fixed period of time (17 years in the U.S.). The rights granted by the patent exclude others from making and selling the invention. Therefore, it is important to determine if a patent has been issued to another inventor that would exclude you from manufacturing, marketing and selling your idea.

It is very important to have a general understanding of how patents work. Patents can be very complicated and I will not go into excessive detail regarding the intricacies of patent law, but I will explain a few fundamentals that will help you determine whether or not an existing patent is blocking your journey.

First, there are two types of patents that you will run across: the utility patent and the design patent. The type that you are interested in is the utility patent. The utility patent is a patent on the functionality of an invention while the design patent is simply a patent on the aesthetic design of the invention (i.e. how it looks).

Within the utility patent application, there are several different sections including the specification, the drawings and the claims.

The specification is a detailed description of the different aspects of the invention and may include several different sections including the field of the invention, the background of the invention, the summary of the invention, a brief description of the drawings and a detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention. The detailed description of the invention will go through every detail of the invention and will refer to the numbered elements shown within the patent drawings.

Now, while the specification is extremely important, the claims of the patent are what actually determine what can and cannot be made and sold by others. The claims are a series of statements at the end of the patent that state what parts of the invention are actually covered by the patent. So it is the claims that you are most interested in.

For instance, the first claim for the patent of a “Shark Protector Suit” is:

1. A suit for protecting its wearer from attack by sharks comprising:

• rubber suit means for substantially completely covering the wearer’s body;
• closed helmet means including a face mask attached to the suit means for substantially completely covering the wearer’s head;
• glove means attached to the suit means for substantially completely covering the wearer’s hands;
• shoe means attached to the suit means for substantially completely covering the wearer’s feet;
• elongated spike means for repelling sharks extending outwardly from the suit means and helmet means;
• and rigid plate means attached to an outer surface of the suit for protecting the wearer.

So if the shark protector suit that you have invented is different than what is claimed, you may still be able to make your fortune!

There are several websites that you can go to in order to perform your search for prior art (“prior art” is the term used by the Patent Office to refer to existing patents).

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has an advanced search functionality that will allow you to search through the millions of patents that have been granted.

In addition, Google Patents also has a large database of patents (7 million) that you can search as well.

I recommend doing detailed searches using both resources as I was actually able to find patents on one service that did not show up on the other and vice versa. (I was told that this should not happen, but in fact it did).

The easiest way to start is to come up with a list of keywords and/or descriptions that describe your idea. Then, use the two resources above to perform searches on these keywords.

It is very likely that you will find prior art on your invention. But don’t panic! Your method of accomplishing the invention may be new and improved compared to the existing patent. This is what I found when I did my search for treadmill laptop holders. There were indeed a number of inventions relating to this idea, but none of them were what I had envisioned. Therefore none of them stopped me from producing the SurfShelf.

The first thing I always did was I examined the patent diagrams carefully. A picture tells a thousand words and you can usually see right away if the patent is similar to your idea. If it seems similar, read the entire patent and pay special attention to the claims to see if they describe in detail the way you envision developing your invention.

If it seems like the patent describes your exact idea, but you wish to pursue it anyway, I would highly recommend getting the professional opinion of a patent attorney to see what your challenges may be. Who knows? He may find that the patent doesn’t block you and that you are free to pursue your invention.

And if you don’t find any prior art regarding your invention, congratulations, you are ready to take the next step. But just because you are not blocked by an existing patent, this does not necessarily mean that you yourself can obtain a new patent on your idea. However, don’t worry about that right now; we’ll get to that later.

In fact, the next thing to do is to file what is called a “Provisional Application for Patent”. This is easy to do and will give you the date stamp of your idea.

So that’s what we’ll talk about next post. See you then…

Randy

Monday’s Menu from Our Farmer’s Table

What it Took (Part 2) – My Journey Launching a New Business and Becoming a New Father

This post is part of the series “What it Took – My Journey Launching a New Business and Becoming a New Father.”

We’ll look back over the last 2 roller-coaster years and use my experiences with bringing the SurfShelf to market as a case study of the do’s and don’ts of starting a new business.

And this week we are at the beginning of my story… the crazy idea and the first prototype.

Obviously it all starts with the idea. I’ve had a few others in my day ranging from a rubber sole that covers the spikes of your golf shoes to interactive online movies (I actually have U.S. patents on both of these and had an interactive movie in the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, but those are different stories). And now a “treadmill laptop holder”.

When the idea hits you, the first thing you need to do is build a rudimentary prototype. There are a few of reasons for this:

1. To see if your product idea can be designed to work the way you envision it

2. To have a model to test in order to see if it’s really that great of an idea

3. To show the concept to other people to see if they think you are crazy (and if they do, you might be really onto something)

4. To see how it might be manufactured

5. And to have some creative fun! It’s good for you.

The first prototype does not need to be pretty, just functional. Also, if the product involves parts that you cannot fabricate out of supplies from the isles of Home Depot or your neighborhood hardware store (like electronics with a particular function), then you may have a difficult time building your prototype yourself. If this is the situation I recommend first working on a “proof of concept” instead. Start by making drawings of your product showing what it is, how it works and how it will be constructed and/or manufactured. You also need to show that it can be developed using technology that already exists or that could exist given the right research and development.

I was lucky… all I had to do was go to Home Depot to buy a piece of plywood, a 2×4, some screws and some metal brackets, the neighborhood hardware store to buy a nylon packing strap with a plastic pull-tight loop, and REI to buy a nylon camping strap with a plastic snap-in buckle.

Ideas typically sprout from a need that needs to be filled… “If I only had a [insert crazy idea name here], then I would be set! Wow, I should make a [crazy idea] and I’ll be a millionaire!”

On December 21^st, 2006 I was alone in my home office (i.e. the garage) running on my treadmill. And I was bored out of my mind. My garage is dimly lit and there is no TV. I had listened to the songs on my iPod a million times and the print in the magazine I was reading this particular night was so small that there was no way I could read it while jogging.

Then I looked over at my desk to where my laptop sat with its broadband Internet connection. And the light bulb went off in my head. Get the laptop onto my treadmill console so I could watch online TV, news and sports highlights.

The next day I spent a few hours building my first prototype. Luckily I have a small workshop in my garage (i.e. my home office) where I have all the tools I needed.

That same day I used my new prototype and watched a full episode of NCIS. After that I was hooked – I couldn’t wait for my next workout to watch all the shows that I didn’t have time to watch at night. Now I can watch TV on my laptop on my treadmill and not feel bad about it!

As it turns out, hour-long shows last about 45 minutes online (the commercials are very short and far and few in between) so they are absolutely perfect. And there are a ton of online shows available, all on-demand and best of all… free. And if I don’t finish a show during one workout, it’s like “to be continued” and I can’t wait to pick it up the next day when I jump back on.

However, the prototype I made only fit my treadmill, so it was time to make a design that would fit ANY machine. That was the tricky part.

I scoured the Internet for pictures of every treadmill I could find. What did they have in common that I could utilize in my design? I also visited every sports and fitness store within 100 miles of my house to take pictures of the different treadmills and to attach my prototypes to them to test.

Without fail, the store managers would always approach me to ask “may I help you sir?” which really meant “what the heck are you doing attaching a wooden tray to our showroom treadmills and taking pictures?” But after the 3^rd or 4^th visit to their stores with new and improved prototypes, they would just wave at me and smile (which meant “there’s that guy again, but don’t worry, he’s harmless”). I’ve even become friends with a couple of them which is pretty funny.

One thing that I have learned during this process is that while 90% of the time it’s important to ask other people their opinions about your idea (because you will learn from new and different perspectives), the other 10% comes from your gut.

So if you really believe in your product, you should at least run with it for a few steps whether others think you’re crazy or not (because there will always be those people who do). And building the first rudimentary prototype can be a lot of fun, is usually quite inexpensive and will give you a lot of satisfaction. What have you got to lose?

Then it will be time to evaluate the idea before you go too far. So I’ll talk about the product evaluation process in a future post, don’t worry.

“If I had asked people what they wanted they would have told me “faster horses”.”

- Henry Ford

See you next time,

Randy

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