Children and Patents

You don’t have to be a grownup to come up with a valuable and useful patent idea. The nation’s ranks of inventors include many children, who -- with the financial support and encouragement of their parents -- have been awarded patents and taken their inventions to market.

Nicholas Ravagni took up guitar lessons when he was five years old but struggled to locate the exact placement for his fingers on the strings.  He hit upon the idea of wrapping plastic under the strings and sticking color-coded markings on top of the plastic to show where to place his fingers.  His parents staked the boy with $10,000 to cover legal and consulting fees, and he received a patent at age 10.  His parents then paid $5,000 to produce 10,000 of these “note maps,” which Nicholas sold door-to-door to music stores.  Ultimately, the world’s largest music distribution company picked up the product and has sold more than 50,000 maps. 

The inspiration for Kristin Hrabar’s invention, a nut driver with a hollow shaft and light mounted on the handle, came while the nine-year old was holding a flash light to illuminate the area where her dad was tightening a bolt.  Her family helped with several trips to Rutgers University to view prior art in the Patent Depository Library.  Finding no tool like Kristin’s, the family hired a patent consultant, and, on her 11th birthday, her dad surprised her with a trip to the U.S. Patent Office in Arlington.  There, the Patent Office presented her with an even-bigger surprise – her freshly issued patent.   Finding no U.S. company interested in manufacturing her product, the family advanced $100,000 to purchase 10,000 tool sets.  So far, Kristin has sold 1,000 sets at trade shows and on her website, http://www.laserdriverstore.com/ .