So you want to be an inventor?
For the AJC
Sunday, April 12, 2009
When he was younger, Robb Sexton thought they would have closed down the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by now. Everything would have been invented.
Instead, he’s found that entrepreneurship has never been at a higher level. “It’s amazing what’s out there. People are inventing every day. There’s something about the American spirit that generates innovation,” he said.
Photos by Leita Cowart / AJC Special
Flatwire is a safe, high performance, low cost replacement for conventional wiring. It mounts on surfaces without visible wires and can be concealed with paint.
Robb Sexton, senior vice president at Southwire, thought of flat wire after installing a media center at his home in 1986.
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An innovator by nature, Sexton dropped out of college after two years and entered the electronics industry. In his 20s he invented an accurate wrist blood pressure cuff.
“We were engineers and we thought we could make it a commercial product in a matter of weeks. Instead, we had to sell the technology, because we couldn’t keep raising the capital we needed to get it to market,” Sexton said. “I learned that I would never do another high-tech venture if I couldn’t understand every aspect of it.”
Sexton went to work for Circuit City to gain valuable retail and business experience, and invented a computer mass storage retrieval system in 1988. He took Symmetrical Technologies public in 1992.
Today, he’s senior vice president at Southwire and president of the FlatWire Technologies Division, which was formerly DeCorp Americas Inc., the company Sexton started around his invention of flat wiring.
“I penned the idea for FlatWire technologies back in 1986, when I created a media center in my home,” Sexton said. “When I was done, all I could see were the wires on the wall. Why did wire have to be thick and round? Why couldn’t it be flat, so that you could mud and paint over it and it would disappear? By then I had learned to listen to myself and started doing the research.”
He applied for his first patent in 1995 and received it in 1998. In 2004, FlatWire was named best product in its category at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Sexton sold the company to Southwire in 2005, but stayed on as head of the division. In 2008, FlatWire technologies were approved for commercial and residential use. “Wow, a 22-year overnight sensation,” Sexton said.
“It takes a lot of money and patience to bring a new product to market,” he said. “If you want to be an entrepreneur, look up the definition. Risk is in the first sentence. You need to assess your tolerance for risk,” he said.
“It’s not easy to create something that’s never been done before. You’re risking not only money, but your self-worth and reputation. You have to be willing to fail. How much are you willing to lay on the line?” Sexton asked.
Determined? Here’s his advice:
» Have an idea? You’ll need to file a patent. The first step is to truly define it on paper — paint the broad picture and then work through the fine details.
» Don’t talk about it to anyone without his signing a non-disclosure agreement. Instead, document it with an attorney and send a registered letter to yourself describing it. You have to establish the first date for this intellectual property.
» The key phrase in any patent is “claims.” Write an abstract of your invention and the things you claim it can do.
» Go on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Web site and research similar products using key words that have to do with your product. Reading a lot of abstracts and seeing how people make claims and do drawings will help you refine your own.
» File a professional patent — the basis of your idea. You will have a year to file a complete patent. If you intend to market globally, you’ll need to file a PCT, a patent cooperative treaty, which will give you up to 30 months to file individually with other foreign countries.
» Be aware that filing patents is a costly and time-consuming business.
» Form a company around your new product, doing the usual marketing and capital-raising plans.
“There’s never been a more exciting time to be an inventor, because of the Internet and access to information, but it’s also never been more costly and frustrating,” Sexton said.
He spent more than $1 million in patent and design work to bring FlatWire to market. Why? “There’s a lot of satisfaction in creating something new, and the ultimate is seeing the finished product,” he said.
“There’s also the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve created jobs and supported families. In multiple companies, my ideas have supported 75 to 100 people, and now there are thousands of people working on FlatWire every day.”
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