Innovations born of frustration

Recognizing a problem, inventing a solution

By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 10/13/2003

A drip-proof paint can. A beach chair with a built-in CD player. A baby jogging stroller that can be switched from one seat to two. A jumbo-size leaf bag for a riding lawn mower. And a telescoping mailbox that expands to keep the occasional big mailing tube protected from rain and snow.

Those are among the dozens of innovations for everyday objects that Massachusetts inventors have successfully patented so far this year, an indication of how vibrant Yankee ingenuity remains in the Bay State -- much of it supplied by newcomer immigrants.

Massachusetts inventors are on track to win well over 4,000 patents this year. Measured by patents awarded per 100,000 residents, the state for years has outpaced other high-tech states including California, New Jersey, Colorado, and New York, according to surveys by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a Westborough-based quasi-public agency that publishes a widely followed annual "Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy."

However, only a handful will be for products average people might ever buy. The overwhelming majority of them involve specialized areas of biotechnology, medical devices, telecommunications and computer networking, reflecting the state's big talent clusters in those areas. New razors, toothbrushes, and golf balls also account for an abundance of new local patent awards, reflecting the strength of Boston-based toiletries giant Gillette Co., Top-Flite Golf of Chicopee, and Acushnet Co. of Fairhaven, maker of Titleist and Pinnacle balls.

For many local inventors, securing a US patent for their ideas -- which by law gives them the right to exclude others from manufacturing, using, or selling the device for up to 20 years -- is only the first hard step in years of work to turn a product into reality.

A perfect example is Merry Sheehan of Rockland. Four years ago, the mother of four, a hard-core running enthusiast and onetime town selectman candidate, admitted having a "temper tantrum" over not being able to switch her $350 jogging stroller to accommodate a second child she occasionally babysat when she wanted to go out on 10-mile marathon training runs.

Sheehan, the youngest of nine children of a South Carolina veterinarian who was a prolific inventor in his own right, quickly imagined a way to design a jogging stroller that could be reconfigured back and forth from one seat to two side-by-side seats just by manually flipping an expansion rod into the reat axle. In April, 18 months after she first filed a patent for the idea, she won patent 6,550,802 for the system.

"My whole goal was just to sell off the patent. I wasn't looking to become a millionaire," Sheehan said. She had some talks with Reebok Inc. and an Italian racing-

bicycle manufacturer that also makes a baby bike trailer. She got positive responses but no commitments. Patent-marketing consultants wanted $15,000 upfront to promote the idea. It also hurt not to have a prototype to demonstrate the idea. Not that she has much extra time -- she has also recently completed studies to become a real-estate appraiser -- but Sheehan is now trying to build an inexpensive proof-of-concept unit with help from an engineer neighbor and a local bicycle shop. She hopes to be able to take it to some key bicycle and baby-product trade shows next month.

"I think it would be so awesome to see my jogger on the market," Sheehan added. "I think having an item out there that you patented is really exciting, regardless of whether you make any money from it."

Timothy A. French, a 23-year veteran Boston patent lawyer with Fish & Richardson PC who is a former president of the 800-member Boston Patent Law Association, said: "It's the person that can see a problem that needs to be solved who is really the successful inventor. The big thing is recognizing the problem or recognizing the need" -- a talent that seems to be much less common than the ability to engineer an idea someone thought up.

Indeed, many of this year's local patent awards for practical new devices were born directly from problems people experienced at home or work. John Lucey of Kingston, owner of JPL Painting of Needham, had cleaned up more than his share of paint rings and spills left from paint dribbling over the side of a can.

He won patent 6,609,629 in late August for his drip-proof paint container, which features a rim that fits inside the top of the can with holes in the bottom to drain surplus paint back into the can as a painter trims excess paint from his brush. Lucey, who with Virginia-based business partner John Ryder is now scouting for investors and manufacturing partners, envisions the same design being used for containers in a range of chemical-manufacturing industries and even cooking, for chefs who might use such a container to hold melted butter or marinade they are brushing on food.

Damon H. Dehart of Bedford, a mechanical engineer by training who works for Abbott Laboratories, was bugged for years by having to empty the undersize grass bags on his riding lawn mower seemingly every 100 feet in the autumn when fallen leaves blanketed his lawn.

The "lightbulb that went off" in his head was recognizing that a suburban lawn warrior needs a jumbo-size bag for a few weeks in the fall to accommodate chopped-up leaves. After two years of work developing prototypes with blue plastic tarpaulins, DeHart filed for a patent in November 2000, which was issued in April as number 6,546,710. A key feature is a noose-like rope that cinches the bag around the discharge chute.

"I like to refer to it as dirt simple," DeHart said. "I knew there were expensive, complicated machines on the market already that solved the problem. This is a very inexpensive product to have fabricated."

Two decades ago, DeHart won two other patents for a windowsill bracket for plant hangers that he made and regularly sold at the New England flower show in Boston each year before copycat brackets took the market.

Rather than trying to sell the device to a mower maker like Toro, Sears, Roebuck, or John Deere, DeHart said he is currently thinking of having his riding mower leaf-season bags produced and "selling them as a little side business." But he's realistic: "I don't want to give up my real job."

Some of the other everyday-product patents awarded to local inventors so far this year:

Reynolds E. Moulton III of Jamaica Plain, president of Brooklyn-based Dogmatic Pet Products Inc., won patent 6,626,131 last month for a hands-free dog leash the company has begun selling for $30 as the "Re-Leash" model, featuring an extra-stretchy connection to a harness the pet owner wears around his torso to keep a rambunctious dog from yanking. Moulton dreamed up the idea while a graduate student at Babson College in 2000-01 and walking 10-pound dachshund Bentley and 80-pound doberman Daisy.

Olarewaju J. Oladipo of Canton won patent 6,595,936 in July for a garment that could be worn by someone whose arm is in a cast or a sling, with a flap sewn on the front that holds the arm in place.

Ilene DeAngelo of West Roxbury won patent 6,546,575 in April for an infant bassinet that can be mounted on the rails of Mom's bed, so a mother can keep a newborn child nearby for feeding and comforting but slide the infant bed out of the way to get in and out of bed easily.

Anaiboni E. Leonor of Jamaica Plain won patent 6,591,742 in July for a specialized device to peel the skins from plantains, the tropical vegetable often used like potatoes in Latin American and Caribbean recipes.

Thomas A. Catalano of Bellingham won design patent D475,502 -- a specialized type of patent covering the appearance of an object rather than its mechanical workings -- for a version of a stretchable sleeve for a conventional suburban post-mounted home mailbox. When a big piece of mail comes, the letter carrier can pull out the sleeve to double the size of the box and keep it dry.

Marsha A. Russell of Salem won patent 6,629,601 for a golf club bag that can be unrolled from the conventional cylindrical shape to a flat sheet, making it easier to fit in a car trunk or stack several bags in the back of a small car, and also tightened to a compressed cylinder.

Leo Mellace of Revere won patent 6,623,072 for a foldable beach chair that has a sand-proof CD player permanently mounted in one armest and a storage bin for discs in the other.

Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.