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07 February 2008
Inventor Ronald Riley Discusses What Makes a Great Innovator
Ask America webchat transcript, February 7
Ronald Riley, an inventor and president of Riley Consulting Inc., answered questions in a February 7 webchat on what it takes to be a great inventor and innovator.
Following is the transcript:
(begin transcript)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of International Information Programs
Ask America Webchat Transcript
Innovation: What Makes A Great Inventor?
Guest: Ronald Riley, Professional Inventors Alliance
Date: February 7, 2008
Time: 9:00 a.m. EST (1400 GMT)
Moderator: Welcome to our webchat! Today is February 7. The live webchat will begin at 09:00 EST / 1400 GMT.
We look forward to hearing from you now or during the live chat.
Ronald Riley: Hi, for many reasons America’s patent system is important to inventors world wide.
Our constitution defines intellectual property as a property right. The cost of a U.S. patent in relationship to the size of market is low. For a variety of reasons an inventor with an important invention can defend their patents with relatively little resources.
Over the last seventeen years I have founded a number of inventor advocacy and educational organizations. The Professional Inventors Alliance -- helps inventors who have produced a significant invention who are having trouble with infringers learn how to defend their rights and also works to preserve a fair, affordable, and accessible patent system for the benefit of smaller business and individual inventors.
InventorEd is an educational nonprofit web site and discussion group for early stage inventors which stresses entreneurship. This is the place to learn how to decide what to patent and when to patent something. Far too many people get patents on things which are not marketable. Start at www.InventorEd.org/novice/.
InventorEd is also the leader in educating inventors about invention promotion fraudsters. This is a huge problem, one where inventors are defrauded typically of $10,000 to $50,000. InventorEd educates inventors about this problem and works with law enforcement entities to bring those who defraud inventors to justice. See: www.InventorEd.org/caution/.
Question [Kris2]: How far does successful commercial exploitation of an invention contribute to the 'greatness' of an inventor?
Answer [Ronald Riley]: Inventions which are not commercialized do not create jobs and tax base for society.
Moderator: Welcome to those of you just joining us. We're getting started now. Please submit your questions for Mr. Riley!
Q [Kris2]: Would you consider low cost microcontrollers with a high level language programming interface as fertile ground for innovations in the field of low cost automation projects?
A [Ronald Riley]: The cost of program logic controllers (PLC) has dropped by orders of magnitude already. There is a great deal of prior art and for that reason I do not believe that this is a fertile area for inventors.
Moderator: Today’s webchat is part of America.gov’s Innovation series. To learn more please visit our innovation homepage.
Q [selinawang]: Hello, I'm a Chinese student. I know invention is very important. But as an ordinary people, how can we use our limited spare time to do some invention to make our live better than before? Thank you.
A [Ronald Riley]: Everyone has the ability to invent. The key is identifying problems in a way which improves performance or lowers costs. Before trying to develop an invention you need to learn about the business. It is only in that way that you can expect to become a commercially successful inventor.
Q [selinawang]: To become an inventor in the future. It's almost everyone's dream when they were young. Though "where there is a hope, there is a way," but only a few people can make their dream come true.
So what do you think are the differences between ordinary people and inventors. Thank you.
A [Ronald Riley]: Perseverance is the difference. Being willing to learn the business. Accepting failures and then picking yourself up and trying again. Most people who fail do so because they were not willing to become jacks of many trades.
Moderator: To those of you just joining us, welcome! Our speaker is reviewing your questions now. Your questions will appear on this screen only after they are selected and answered by today's speaker. We ask for your patience as our speaker prepares answers and posts them.
Q [sheitinghui]: 您好：我要成为一个发明家，请给我一些建义，谢谢。[Hello: How can I become an inventor?] shen tinghui
A [Ronald Riley]: Many books have been written on this topic. There is no one answer.
Start by reading the material on www.InventorEd.org and also on www.TENonline.org. InventorEd has over 3000 pages of information on a bit over 500 web pages. You should start at www.InventorEd.org/novice/.
I am sorry, but it is only available in English. But we are a nonprofit and would welcome volunteers to translate the material.
Moderator: Read more about inventions, innovation, and new thinking in the most recent edition of America.gov’s eJournalUSA, “The Next New Thing.”
Q [Paul]: Can innovation be taught?
A [Ronald Riley]: Yes. Personally I think that science fiction read at an early age teaches people to think outside the box. That is the key to finding unusual solutions to problems. It is also very common for inventors to suffer from ADD, dyslexia and other imbalances in their abilities. It seems that this leads to those people approaching problem solving differently than other people.
Moderator: Thank you for your questions! Mr. Riley continues to review and answer them as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience.
What are the trends in innovation? Find out in our next Innovation webchat with trend spotter Richard Dasher on February 12. Details at available at http://www.america.gov/multimedia/askamerica.html#dasher_12_feb_2008.
Q [Chat Participant]: Hello Sir! To my mind, invention and creativity come from the human mind and ability to free think. Therefore, do you see the invention as the product of a society of free thinkers more often than from the closed society?
A [Ronald Riley]: For inventors to attain their greatest potential society needs to allow them to be free and independent thinkers. There are most certainly contemporary examples of societies which pound down anyone who stands out. Those societies’ inventors tend to produce narrow incremental inventions. Interestingly, large corporations do the same. The older and bigger the company the less inventive they become. In fact, the majority of breakthrough inventions come from independent and academic inventors.
Do not mistake large qualities of patent filing by some companies as representing significant invention. As companies age they try to compensate for their loss of inventiveness with quality of patents as opposed to significance. Quantity is not a good substitute for quality. This is why there are so many "David versus goliath" patent litigations. The reason being that the most important inventions come from outside the corporations.
That means that if you are willing to work hard and you do not make any serious mistakes that individual inventors can and do produce technology which completely reshapes whole industries or create new industries.
Q [Chat Participant]: One additional question: Will today's generation of hi-tech children be the greatest generation of inventors OR will they limit their inventiveness because of too much reliance on hi-tech?
A [Ronald Riley]: The evidence makes it clear that we live in an age of accelerating innovation. That said I believe that young children need to be physically active and have hands on activities.
For many years I have saved old appliances and sat elementary & middle school children down with hand tools and guided them in disassembling those products. It teaches them an incredible amount about how things are made. This is the kind of low cost activities which gives those children the knowledge and confidence to become inventors.
Moderator: Today’s webchat is part of America.gov’s Innovation series. To learn more please visit our innovation homepage.
Q [Kuba]: If I identify a problem ... invent a solution ... design the solution. What must I do next? What must I know about the business?
A [Ronald Riley]: You need to know if there is really a market for the product. And you also need to understand the pricing structure of the target industry and be able to produce the product at a cost point where people will consider it a good value. It is very common for people to produce inventions which cannot be produced at a low enough cost to be salable. Typically you need to be able to make a product for about one tenth its factory wholesale cost for it to be viable. And remember that depending on the product that the retail will be between 1.2 and 3 times the factory wholesale price.
Q [Moderator: "Rafiq" asks]: "One of my faculty member Mr. Tanveer Naqvi wants to know:
How can we be innovative in traditional, centralized organization where lower employees don't have decision-making powers?
A [Ronald Riley]: Get out of the big organization. Start your own business. That is how I started. I pulled myself up from my bootstraps. Start with a side business. Grow it to the point you can afford to switch to that business full time.
Q [Regina]: What are the most important inventions of the last century? Were the inventions of light bulb, telegraph, steam engine relatively more of an impact to people than today's microprocessor, medical innovation, etc. Who’s era of invention was more important?
A [Ronald Riley]: All inventions are built on the shoulders of those who preceded them. Inventions at each point in history are important for all subsequent inventions. All inventions advance the arts, even when they may not be successful. That said, for the inventor to be able to afford to continue to invent they must achieve economic success. And it is that success which creates jobs and improves society.
Q [Moderator: "Waheed Ahmad" asks]: "[To what] extent innovative thinking is successful in developing countries, like Pakistan?"
A [Ronald Riley]: It is invention and local inventors which will advance your society economically. It is only through invention that your society can produce decent profit margins. Otherwise every product is a commodity with razor thin margins.
Moderator: We wish to thank Ronald Riley for joining us today. The webchat is now closed.
A full transcript of today's webchat will be available on our Ask America Homepage usually within one business day.
(Guests are chosen for their expertise. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of State.)
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
