I am proud of the many accomplishments I made during my lifetime, and although I was no longer a part of some of them, things I did are still in use today, even if my name is no longer associated with them.
I don't like Patents, although I did have three of them in order to protect my planting system, required by those who were interested in a franchise.
But nothing else did I dare Patent, especially my AZ-NO3 product. To do so would have meant I had to disclose my formula which would give away the two main secrets that make it work, that nobody else ever thought of.
The thing is, the exact same chemical formula is applied to a series of products. But those products are not the same, nor do they come from the same sources. It is the source of the ingredient that makes all the difference in the world.
The same held true for my growing media. You can buy Haydite from many different places. But not all Haydite is the same, and also not at all suitable for hydroculture. What I used had to come from a special source, be horticulturally stable, and have another treatment done to it that is not done to Haydite. So, it is really not Haydite after I processed it, which is why I got a Patent on it. It required a 150 foot long Turnpipe Kiln with Two Kilns operating at different temperatures. The first kiln much hotter than a normal kiln used for making Haydite.
It had to be hot enough to melt the red veining from the slate, and make it puff up like popcorn but vertically. Then the melted red veining had to cool to like a dense whipped cream in the Turnpipe which then the expanded slate would get coated with the red veining. Then it had to go through a second kiln to fire it again to make hard like a clay flower pot.
The process I developed ensured the expanded slate had a nice hygroscopic coating, and remained horticulturally stable.
OK, done bragging on myself for one day, hi hi.
Shame I never made any money I could keep out of my lifetime of neat stuff I made.
Micro Climate in O'Fallon
Forum rules
Post a new topic to begin a chat.
Any topic is acceptable, and topic drift is permissible.
Post a new topic to begin a chat.
Any topic is acceptable, and topic drift is permissible.
Re: Micro Climate in O'Fallon
I probably should not characterize it this way, but it seems to be the case. You are a prolific creative inventor who does well in business but is terrible at investments. Preserving long term benefits from your unique creations is not your specialty which explains why you are not a wealth business tycoon today. You are instead a person of high esteem and accomplishments.
I know of what you speak regarding the patent disclosures, but there is an upside to revealing your secrets. Anybody can in fact use your process, but you benefit from the royalties when they do. I suppose that could involve a lot of court time and law suits so that perhaps it was not worth it. Besides, there is something appealing about the notion of you taking your secrets with you to the next world. LOL
I know of what you speak regarding the patent disclosures, but there is an upside to revealing your secrets. Anybody can in fact use your process, but you benefit from the royalties when they do. I suppose that could involve a lot of court time and law suits so that perhaps it was not worth it. Besides, there is something appealing about the notion of you taking your secrets with you to the next world. LOL
Re: Micro Climate in O'Fallon
I learned the hard way from when I did hold 3 US Patents.
It costs roughly 150,000 dollars to go after each infringement.
More often than not, those doing the infringement are making things in their basement to resell.
This means, they don't have enough money to even pay part of what it costs to go after them.
But we did get them to stop using threats from a lawyer with cease and desist letters.
But the thing is, if you don't go after every infringement, eventually the big guys step in and begin making the product themselves, and there is very little you can do about it, because you didn't go after the little guys after knowing about it.
Since you didn't go after four or five known infringements, they can claim you abandoned your patent through lack of action against infringements.
But some of the products I made and sold that I did not get a patent on was simply because if they knew how I did it, and what proportions of the ingredients I used to make it, they could make it at home for themselves and not buy my products.
There are a lot of products folks buy on store shelves that they buy simply because of what the label says they do.
But how many would bother to use sometimes the only ingredient in that bottle, like 91% isopropyl alcohol as the only ingredient. That's all the ball point pen remover solution was, no matter who sold it, or under what brand name, hi hi.
It costs roughly 150,000 dollars to go after each infringement.
More often than not, those doing the infringement are making things in their basement to resell.
This means, they don't have enough money to even pay part of what it costs to go after them.
But we did get them to stop using threats from a lawyer with cease and desist letters.
But the thing is, if you don't go after every infringement, eventually the big guys step in and begin making the product themselves, and there is very little you can do about it, because you didn't go after the little guys after knowing about it.
Since you didn't go after four or five known infringements, they can claim you abandoned your patent through lack of action against infringements.
But some of the products I made and sold that I did not get a patent on was simply because if they knew how I did it, and what proportions of the ingredients I used to make it, they could make it at home for themselves and not buy my products.
There are a lot of products folks buy on store shelves that they buy simply because of what the label says they do.
But how many would bother to use sometimes the only ingredient in that bottle, like 91% isopropyl alcohol as the only ingredient. That's all the ball point pen remover solution was, no matter who sold it, or under what brand name, hi hi.
Re: Micro Climate in O'Fallon
Shoppers are not forensic investigators. Those labels with the eye candy extolling the wonders of the products are all most people care about. They have a job that needs to be done and regardless of what's in the bottle if the claim is they can do it that's all that matters. There are some very good reasons to dig a little deeper into the formulation, and I think you have used those to your advantage. The common consumer of goods doesn't have the time or the motivation that you have, so they pay 100 times the price for a few ounces of alcohol.
I know defending your patent can be expensive and the incentive to do so depends on the value you put into your work. Your aquarium product does not return the kind of profit that justifies enormous legal expenditures. You probably are doing the right thing by not exposing your formula and methods.
I know defending your patent can be expensive and the incentive to do so depends on the value you put into your work. Your aquarium product does not return the kind of profit that justifies enormous legal expenditures. You probably are doing the right thing by not exposing your formula and methods.
Re: Micro Climate in O'Fallon
Yeppers, if folks only knew, they wouldn't get ripped off so bad all the time.
If I had patented my formula, I would have been out of business before the patent expired, hi hi.
If I had patented my formula, I would have been out of business before the patent expired, hi hi.