Today’s Question

What small-business owners think.

John Gress for The New York Tim Dan Brown, inventor of the Bionic Wrench.

The Times has published an article detailing how Dan Brown, inventor of the Bionic Wrench, wound up in a patent dispute with Sears, which has introduced a competing product, the Max Access.

As the article explains, the tools have one significant difference:

The Bionic Wrench is made in the United States. The Max Axess wrench is made in China.

The shift at Sears from a tool invented and manufactured in the United States to a very similar one made offshore has already led to a loss of American jobs and a brewing patent battle.

The story of the Bionic Wrench versus Craftsman, which bills itself as “America’s most trusted tool brand,” also raises questions about how much entrepreneurs and innovators, who rely on the country’s intellectual property laws, can protect themselves. For the little guy, court battles are inevitably time-consuming and costly, no matter the outcome.

The article goes on to explain that sales of the Bionic Wrench took off after Mr. Brown got Sears to do a test sale. After the test sold out, Sears ordered 75,000 wrenches the next year — and Mr. Brown agreed not to sell his wrench to Home Depot or Lowe’s.

Please read the story — and then tell us if you think there is anything Mr. Brown, who teaches industrial design at Northwestern University, might have done differently to protect his product.

Article source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/could-the-inventor-of-the-bionic-wrench-have-avoided-this-fight/?partner=rss&emc=rss