Riley Consulting, Inc. Return to page 1 - Return to page 2
Page 3 I own free and clear a 114 acre farm with a new house (2700 square ft) which I designed and built and a 3000 sq. ft pole building with a lab. After I left my job with the subsidiary of Sun Oil to pursue inventing I spent the first year and a half years completing construction of my 3000 sq. foot laboratory and a 2700 sq. foot passive solar house while living in a mobile home on site. I worked part time as a consultant and was able to complete both the house and laboratory without assuming any debt. The house and lab are located almost half a mile off the road in a wooded area at the back of the farm. There are multiple ponds and wetlands, occupying over 40 acres of the farm, with elevation differences of 25 feet. We routinely see ducks, geese, blue herons, owls, deer, fox, and many other interesting wildlife. Our house overlooks a pond that has thousands of trilliums and many other wildflowers on it's banks. I spend summers running the farm and excavating ponds while producing inventions, and winters building prototypes, marketing and enforcing patents. After I completed building my lab and house I turned my attention to inventing and writing for commercial trade publications. The purpose of writing was twofold, it served to establish industry wide credibility of my expertise, second it served to alert the industry of deficiencies in products produced by infringers. Not having debt was a key factor in my being able to become a full time innovator in 1990. While I have the comfort of almost no debt and I have significant assets, I often am short of cash to file new patents because of the necessity of maintaining a significant war-chest fund to deal with those companies who try and steal my inventions. I am producing two to four patentable ideas per month and selecting the best (I.e. most likely to be commercially successful ) ideas for filing as funds become available. I have five patents related to Automated Electrified Monorails (A.E.M.) controls at this time covering analog, half wave digital, binary speed coding, dual isolated contacts to eliminate shorts between zones, software zoning, safety control circuits, and many other control methods. The patent numbers are 4,892,980 - Dual Contacts On Voltage Rail , 4,919,057- Conveyor Control Through Binary Coding , 4,924,164 - Software Zoning Of Conveyor Control , 4,984,521, - Conveyor Control and 5,503,260 - Conveyor Safety Assembly . The five patents have a total of 193 claims that cover many aspects of A.E.M. system control. Additional patents are pending in diverse disciplines. I have made a large investment of both time and materials in patents and product development since 1984 and have learned many A.E.M. system quirks through hard experience. I have been involved with A.E.M. control since the United States started importing and OEM's started licensing monorail systems which probably makes me the most knowledgeable person in the U.S. on A.E.M. system control. I have numerous additional patents being processed related to industrial, telecommunications, and consumer products. I have successfully completed numerous licenses and have interest from a number of manufacturers who are considering licensing both patents and commissioning product designs. I also am fighting several companies that are actively stealing my intellectual property. I am negotiating with several companies and actively investigating numerous others. My two most recent patents address safety concerns about electric treadmills. I expect that new treadmills will be much safer for children than the current products. I love learning, about almost any subject, more then just about any other activity in life. It has been my experience that persons older then myself are gold mines of experience and knowledge. My two closest friends are 73 and 89 years old. I have many interests including archaeology, renewable energy, environmental issues, etc. As a result of my going into business when I was 20 years old most of my friends are much older than I am. I didn't share any common interests with persons my own age and I formed a number of friendships with persons who were at that time 40 to 60 years old. Several of them have passed on, and while associations with older persons have the drawback of the pain associated with their loss, I have found that the wisdom, experience, and tolerance that they have makes that an acceptable tradeoff. The loss of Jerome Lemelson on 10-1-97 was especially tragic since he had blazed a trail for the independent inventor, set an example that an inventor could succeed for my generation. Marketing and defending (Acquiring & Defending Patents) my patents has been a time consuming and frustrating experience for me, most certainly not as much fun as developing patent concepts and I would like to help others learn how to defend their patents. When I became a full time inventor I expected a 50-50 split between time spent inventing and marketing - enforcement. After two years I had revised that to 25% inventing and 75% marketing - enforcement. I now believe a realistic figure is 5% or less inventing. Independent inventors have been very active in Washington, DC to educate our legislators about the importance of the patent system. Inventors were forced to become active in politics as a result of some multinational corporations and the Japanese governments efforts to alter our patent system in ways that will make patents unenforceable for everyone except the largest companies. You can read my white paper, Multinationals & Japan Would Cripple American Patent System about this problem. I believe publicity will help make companies that are stealing intellectual property aware that some of the best minds in this country are not only inventing but also becoming more sophisticated in defending their rights. I think it is a good strategy for individual inventors to keep as high a profile in publications as possible. I believe that this strategy will make the public aware of the plight of inventors. And if they are convinced that decent paying jobs are ultimately dependent on encouraging innovation, then we may be able to get legislation passed that will aid the individual inventor. Making everyone aware that inventors are defending their property will also encourage infringers to negotiate and facilitate quicker settlements. I also use technical articles as a method to alert end users about deficiencies in products they have purchased from infringers. I do not name the infringer in the article. I do describe common problems. This gives me credibility while giving the infringer a hot foot. In some cases end users who read the articles hire me to advise them about the systems. I get paid to gather information about the infringing system. I give the purchaser information about what needs to be changed to make the system reliable and safe. The purchaser then demands that the infringer fix the system at no cost. This costs the infringer hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars and makes them look very bad in the industry. This is a win-win situation for me. Last, I believe that America's continued prosperity is dependent on innovation (as is the prosperity of other countries). I believe that large corporate treatment of inventors (Mandatory Assignment Of Inventions Harms America) is responsible for the decline we have seen in the output of large entity R&D. America can not compete in a global market based on wages, innovation is in my view the key to maintaining our standard of living. I also believe that successful inventors should nurture innovation by participating in government and promoting changes in both government and our society as a whole to maximize innovation as a natural resource. Furthermore, I believe that other countries would benefit from adopting our patent laws to encourage their citizens to invent and start new companies. To that end I founded the Professional Inventors Alliance (PIA) to help inventors network, specifically to share information about predatory and unethical conduct by large entities who crush startup companies which they view as a threat to themselves. It is especially important that we promote innovative thinking in our children no later than third or forth grade and continue to promote it through the educational system including doing so in college. To that end I am working extensively with a number of organizations to develop suitable programs and to help them network with successful inventors, both to provide roll models, and to help those inventors contribute to worthwhile programs. Examples of such programs are The Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention & Innovation & The National Collegiate Inventors Alliance, both funded by Jerome Lemelson, the greatest inventor of our times. And last, I have been promoting the Educational Initiative, a program designed to expose college students to professional inventors - and in turn those college students are expected to mentor high school and junior high school student in an annual invention contest. That effort resulted in the Young Inventors Program for 5th - 8th grade students in Genesee County. I found the program a tough sell with the majority of organizations in our area. At one point Mott Community College agreed to host the program, but the people assigned to it repeatedly dropped the ball. But the Flint Chamber of Commerce picked on the issue and through the efforts of Larry Ford, Jim Minca, and Bob Ross they did successfully champion the children's portion of the program which is now in it's fourth year. Special thanks goes to area Doug Hougan for providing the original push to create this program and just as important he and his wife provided significant seed funding to launce the program. I have been working with numerous inventors and organizations to promote publicity to encourage innovative thinking and appropriate education of our young. I have also invested a great deal of time in identifying, introducing, and encouraging various organizations to work together to accomplish these goals in that I serve as the catalyst that brings them together.
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