OPEN INNOVATION COMPANIES
Open innovation has been embraced by many companies around the world. This is a process where anyone outside a company can make a submission on the company’s website, because it has been recognised that their own Research and Development Department may not have all the solutions and ideas for new products, improved products and revolutionary inventions. A submission is a patent pending or patented concept that someone has and will upload online on the web page, e-mail to a company or will send through the postal agency. This is a clever way to tap into talents and intelligence of people outside their companies, to make up for the lack within. A list of these open innovation companies is given on the following web page searches:
There are many companies that do not accept outside submissions and they will say this on their websites or they will tell you this when you call or send an e-mail to them. Keep this in mind if you plan to submit something to a company or plan to call them. I recently submitted detailed schematics for a concept that I know a company in the U.S. Defence Industry was in need of, although this is a company that has a strict policy of not accepting unsolicited submissions or submissions from outside its company, since they invest heavily and depend extensively on their Research and Development Department for all their new inventions. The strategy I used was simple. I knew that the company needed this concept for future work, so I quickly detailed the concept with schematics and explanations and sent the letter straight to the C.E.O. He liked what he saw and immediately accepted the submission. They sent me legal documents to sign to ensure that I do not show anyone or another company the concept. This document is called non confidential disclosure agreement. It legally binds someone to stay quiet about the concept and if caught showing, giving or selling another company the concept, laws have been broken and the F.B.I. can initiate action. You need to read more about these types of documents online to get an understanding of the parameters involved. If on the other hand, I had sent the submission to low level employees of the company, they would have rejected the submission, because to their knowledge, their company does not accept outside submissions. Sometimes one has to make contact with the person at the top of an organisation to get results and quick response. For example, those who personally know government officials in their countries are able to get contracts, jobs, promotions, favours and have a direct access to certain goods and services in those countries. It is wise to increase your network of friends, because you will never know when you will need help from a particular individual.
Conduct internet searches for these three websites above and you will come across the list of open innovation companies. You can then go into the individual company’s websites and get specific information on what products they are looking for to be submitted. Remember your product can simply be an improvement to an existing product in the market as explained before. If however you have a revolutionary new product, that is specific to a particular company, then you can make an online submission. If a company manufactures cars and you make a submission for a tyre, the company will definitely reject your submission. If a dental company manufactures toothbrushes and you make a submission for dental floss, this company will reject your submission. My advice here is to look at the specific products of a particular company and make submissions with respect to the products that they manufacture. Also you can make submissions about the specific products that they need submissions for, which they want to improve on. Most of these open innovation companies specify that one needs to have his concept already patent pending or patented. Patent pending or patented status of your concept will ensure that your idea is legally protected and that the company or an individual does not steal your idea. Most times if someone makes a submission without a patent or patent pending status, the company will reject it completely, to protect itself legally from someone making any false claims against it. Or if you do not have a patent pending or patented status of your concept, but the reviewer at the company likes it, but because of legal issues, he has to reject your concept, he will steal the idea, patent it for himself, take it to his boss or to another company, sign a licensing agreement and make money. If his company has a policy of not accepting submissions from its workers, he will give a trusted friend to patent it, make the submission to the company, sign a licensing agreement and both of them will make money. Remember I had warned earlier in the book about crooked individuals and crooked companies.
NASA is an open innovation company, so if you are inclined towards the Engineering and Aerospace industry, you can contact them and ask how to make a submission. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is another U.S. government agency that accepts submissions from outside sources. DARPA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. A list of the specific projects that they seek submissions for is given on their website.
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is always looking for innovative scientific and technological solutions that can address current and future Navy and Marine Corps requirements. They will do business with people and organizations with ground-breaking ideas, pioneering scientific research, novel technology developments and first-class support services. This website has a list of request for proposals products that they need from the public, and the instructions for submitting a proposal, so if you have a ground breaking innovation or product or service that will be of interest to them, you can make your submission. You can do a detailed research into what this agency does and what the armed forces in America use in terms of technology and science and develop your concept with this in mind.
FedBizOpps.Gov is the U.S. government’s website for an entire listing of all the different projects that all its agencies and state departments seek submissions for. You can go to this website and look at the different projects that are listed. To make a submission, an individual must firstly register online on that website. There are also videos on that website that will assist you to understand the submission process better. For the people who are technologically and militarily inclined, this is the website to visit. I also recently made a submission through this website for review.
The Lego Group is a family-owned company based in Billund, Denmark, and best known for the manufacture of Lego brand toys. The company was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen. Today Lego sells toys around the world. This company embraces open innovation policies, so if you have an idea or two for the next Lego toy, go to the Lego Official Site, take a tour of the site, come up with your ideas, follow their rules and make your submission. If ten million of your toys are sold worldwide and you get a dollar royalty for each toy, this gives a total of ten million dollars. If you have a second toy and another ten million are sold worldwide and you get another one dollar royalty for each sold, this is another ten million dollars. This should be enough incentive to get anyone to start creating on a scrapbook. I will recommend that you do research online and at the toy stores in your city, and look at Lego products and other popular toy products, before you start jutting notes on your scrapbook. The key here is to look at toys in the stores, make notes of your ideas on paper, make drawings and take photographs. Refine your scrap notes and drawings and then design something unique that you will submit. You can observe children who are playing with toys and look at their reactions towards different kinds of toys, plus you will need to observe the popular toy trends at the toy stores and find out what children and parents are buying at these stores. This will help you with your final designs to submit to Lego. You can submit more than one idea to the company, because there is no telling which one will be accepted. Once your Lego idea is placed on their website for the public to see, an idea needs to get at least 10,000 supports within a certain timeframe, by individuals who visit the website, for it to be considered for review by Lego’s official to decide if to manufacture that idea. A strategy to use here is to get friends and families to visit Lego’s website to indicate that they support your design. You can also hand out flyers to people requesting that they visit the website and click on the support icon to support your design. They will have to create an account first before they can click on support. You can also ask all your contacts on social websites to support your idea. I made twenty five submissions already, but these are still in the support stage of the process. Recently Lego Company signed a multi million dollar deal to introduce Marvel characters into its Lego toy products. Both companies will make millions of dollars. Who would have ever thought that Marvel characters can be incorporated as characters in Lego? This goes to show that an idea can come from anywhere and once implemented, all players will benefit and gain million of dollars. Walt Disney was laughed at and ridiculed when he came up with Mickey Mouse. Everyone scoffed and commented that no one would want to see a rat or want to be a part of any rat. Today that rat is popular on television around the world. He is also popular at all Disney World Parks around the world and is popular as mascots around the world. His other animal friends are also popular just like him. Good luck with this Lego endeavor.
Amazon.com also accepts business proposals, so if you have a patent pending or patented product that is specific to their needs and they will benefit from, then you can go ahead and make a submission. Make sure and do extensive research about their business and their products before you make a submission to them, else it will be rejected. The C.E.O. of Amazon.com, Jeffrey Preston "Jeff" Bezos likes to disrupt industries and businesses. If you have something revolutionary that will disrupt existing industries and businesses, then you can submit your business proposal to them. If on the other hand, you have access to a large amount of money and want to invest in a company that will directly compete with Amazon, Jeffrey Bezos will recognize this and he will contact you and offer to buy your company. This might be the best strategic way to be noticed by Amazon’s C.E.O.
These open innovation policies that are being adopted by companies around the world have been offering many opportunities for the rookie and the experienced inventors and for product development people to submit patent pending and patented concepts to them. Even the average individual without any inventing skills can put together an idea on paper with diagrams and get a patent pending and then submit this to open innovation companies. More companies in the future will also offer these opportunities for outsiders to submit their product improvements and inventions. This is a way to fully exploit and engage the wider community who have brilliant and innovative ideas and inventions and who have never been affiliated with those companies. It also offers a way for an inventor to supplement his present income. Who knows, the next big idea might come from YOU.