Social net aims to link product inventors with retailers

Computerworld - Thomas Edison once said, "Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success."

A new social network called Edison Nation is aiming to provide the success and utility Edison spoke of by linking inventors with retailers who might be interested in their inventions.

Edison Nation, an outgrowth of the PBS television series Everyday Edisons, aims to provide an easier way for would-be inventors to navigate the sometimes costly and complicated course of taking an idea from conception to store shelves, said Matt Spangard, co-founder of Edison Nation and co-executive producer of Everyday Edisons.

"Everybody thinks that the inventor is 'Doc' from Back to the Future," he said. "But everybody is a inventor. We've all been in the car and had a good idea we didn't know what to do with that three or four years later somebody else sold."

Multiple retailers like WestPoint Home, Spencer's Gifts, Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond and Razor USA have signed on to participate in the effort, he added. The retailers have agreed to search Edison Nation for certain types of products. For example, WestPoint, a manufacturer of bed and bath products, is now seeking suggestions for products like blankets, mattress pads and towels that can generate heat without AC power. The first search wrapped up this week and generated 1,000 submissions, Spangard added.

Edison Nation includes human experts and artificial intelligence technology that scour through the submissions and select those to be sent on to a retailer. If a retailer selects an idea, the inventor will receive a $2,500 advance and annual payments based on commercialization, Edison Nation said. Annual payments are defined by Edison as 7.5% of net revenues, 50% of licensing revenues, 40% of assignment revenues and 4% of brand revenues.

The social network charges $25 to submit inventions to a database that Edison Nation maintains and uses for all product searches. "Our goal is to help inventors and everyday idea people get their ideas to market," Spangard said.

Without this type of system, a would-be inventor might have been required to spend thousands of dollars in an effort to find firms to design, engineer and market their inventions, he added. "Before it would take a half-million dollars to bring a product to market. That is a gamble because it may not be bought by a retailer."

The site grew out of the overflow of good ideas submitted to the Everyday Edisons television show, which could only choose 12 to 14 inventions from 10,000-plus submissions a season to commercialize, Spangard said.