At our October meeting, Robert Green of PowerPak Industries LLC gave a presentation on the subject of packaging for new products. Bob is the son of Peter Green who created the first-ever blister pack for retail packaging and Bob took over the company from his father in 1984. His presentation included photos of the first machine used to do blister packaging as well as subsequent generations of packaging machines. He shared many examples of packaging that he has helped inventors and entrepreneurs design to have the right packaging for their new products.
We continue to have new attendees every month in addition to those who are becoming regular attendees at our meeting location at the law offices of Knobbe Martens, 3579 Valley Centre Drive, Suite 300, San Diego, CA 92130.
Our November meeting will be a presentation by former board member, Sidney Wildesmith, on the subject of making videos to use for getting the interest of angel investors or doing crowd funding as well as making videos to market your new product to its target markets. Sidney is the CEO, Founder, and Creative Director at Wildesmith Studio and has many years of experience in producing videos and internet TV. He recorded and produced all of the SDIF Youtube videos for many years. Don’t miss this valuable presentation.
The San Diego Inventors Forum supports the work of the national organization, US Inventors, to restore patent rights since the organization was founded in 2014 after the passage of the America Invents Act of 2011. US Inventor is the only organization representing small inventors, businesses, and startups to enact change that supports these groups, and it has grown to about 87,000 members over the past couple of years. If you haven’t already signed the Inventor’s Rights Resolution, you can sign here.
In the past month, US Inventors has been active in opposing two Senate bills that would not help inventors and undo the damage caused by the American Invents Act of 2011. These bills were supposed to be “Marked up” and approved by the Judiciary Committee in September. The two bills are:
S. 2140: Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2023 (PERA)
S.2220 - PREVAIL Act
Thousands of USI members have called and wrote their Senator expressing their opposition to both bills. PREVAIL could be saved if it had an amendment that “offers inventors the “choice” of not being forced into the unjust PTAB administrative court, but rather being able to choose to face your infringer in a real court with a jury and Due Process.”
Michele participated with other constituents of the two California Senators, Butler and Padilla in Zoom meetings with the staff of the Senators that was arranged by US Inventors.
Many attendees to the US Inventor annual conference on September 25th-26th came a day early to visit the offices of their Senators.
As a result of these efforts, the bills were not considered by the Judiciary committee. The danger is that Congress will resume being in session for five weeks starting next week after the Veterans Day holiday.
We urge you to contact the offices of Senator Butler and Padilla and express your opposition to PERA and PREVAIL unless PREVAIL is amended as suggested above. You can call the U.S. House switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to get connected to the office of your Senator.
SDIF President's Message
The world is constantly evolving but now it is happening at a breakneck pace. We have to adapt to the changes very, very quickly and not just invent cutting edge gadgets but we have to reinvent ourselves again and again to have a chance of succeeding in the current environment. Of all the things relevant to making an invention/new product a success, marketing is the number one issue. It used to be a skill, but now it has evolved into an art. Now if your pitch/presentation is only good - it is not good enough anymore - it has to be spectacular. An earlier convincing side by side comparison video cannot compete now with those few seconds long blasts that overwhelm the viewer right away. These are some of the things we will be touching on at our November meeting. See you there!
Greg Wawrzyniak
Check out this Made in USA video if you have a product ready for marketing at this link: Revitalizing the American economy!
https://youtu.be/Q1-aUxRRhdU