Louis Foreman is founder and Chief Executive of Enventys (www.enventys.com) , an
integrated product design and engineering firm with offices in Charlotte, NC and Hong
Kong. Louis graduated from The University of Illinois with a Bachelors of Science
degree in Economics. His interest in starting businesses and developing innovative
products began while a sophomore with his first company founded in his fraternity room.
Over the past 20 years Louis has created 5 successful start-ups and has been directly
responsible for the creation of over 10 others. A prolific inventor, he is the inventor of 9
registered US Patents, and his firm is responsible for the development and filing of well
over 150 more.
The recipient of numerous awards for entrepreneurial achievement, his passion for
small business extends beyond his own companies. Louis volunteers his time teaching
small business classes at Central Piedmont Community College, and gives back to the
small business community by mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs. He is a frequent
lecturer and radio / TV guest on the topics of small business creation and product
development, and was most recently invited by the United States Patent and Trademark
Office to be a featured speaker on the topic of innovation.
In addition to being an inventor, Louis is also committed to educating others on the topic
of intellectual property. In 2007, Louis became the publisher of Inventors Digest, a 20
year old publication devoted to the topic of American Innovation.
Louis currently serves as a board member for the University of North Carolina Charlotte
Technology Commercialization Committee, The Entrepreneurial Leadership Council at
Queens University, The Central Piedmont Community College Small Business Advisory
Board, as well as, serving other community and charitable organizations. In 2005, Louis
was a founding member of The Inventors Network of the Carolinas, a non-profit
organization that empowers inventors through education, support, and networking
opportunities. Most recently, Louis is serving as the Executive Producer and judge for a
new inventor’s TV show called Everyday Edisons. The show will appear nationally on
PBS stations in 2007.
EGT GLOBAL TRADING / EDITH G. TOLCHIN BIO
Edith G. Tolchin, “The Sourcing Lady” (SM), “invented” EGT Global Trading in 1997, with a goal to link U.S. inventors with Asian manufacturers, to provide a "one-stop Import service" for sourcing, quality control, manufacturing, international financing, air/ocean shipping, customs clearance arrangements, and dock-to-door delivery. Edie began her career in import and international trade in 1973, fresh out of NYU, with a NYC importer of frozen fish and bicycles. She has worked with both large and small importers, handling commodities from salted nuts to chemicals and waxes, to wearing apparel and toys. Ms. Tolchin holds a U.S. Customs Broker License, and has extensive experience with U.S. Customs and Customs Brokers in various products and issues, including binding rulings, duty protests and drawbacks. She is a Professional Member of the United Inventors Association.
EGT Global Trading specializes in offshore manufacturing services for inventions of textiles and sewn-items, bags, baby and fashion accessories, unique arts & crafts items, and household inventions. Edie Tolchin regularly provides presentations for inventors’ organizations and trade shows throughout the USA on topics such as “Importing Basics for Inventors™,” and “Offshore Manufacturing for Inventors™.”
For free brochure and lit packet, please contact: EGT Global Trading, P.O. Box 231, Florida, NY 10921 USA. Fax (845) 651-3214, e-mail: EGT@warwick.net, webpage: http://www.hometown.aol.com/egtglobaltrading
About Jack Lander
Jack is a seasoned inventor with 11 patents, and one presently in process. His most commercially successful patents are assigned to U.S. Surgical Corporation, and cover the safety mechanism and gas valve on laparoscopic surgical instruments. His other patents cover a bicycle transmission that replaces the derailleur, testing devices (probe cards) for integrated circuits in wafer form, a thermal connector for high-power solid-state components, etc.
He has served as President of the United Inventors Association, a not-for-profit umbrella organization for inventor groups in the U.S. and Canada. He is presently the Vice President of the Yankee Invention Exposition & Yankee Entrepreneur Workshops, held in Waterbury, Connecticut early each October, and has served on its Board of Directors for ten of its eleven year history. Jack also founded the Inventor’s Bookstore, now part of the United Inventors Association (www.uiausa.org).
Jack is the author of How to Finance Your Invention or Great Idea, and Nolo’s new release, All I Need Is Money. (Nolo is the prestigious publisher of Patent It Yourself, by David Pressman.) Jack also edited and contributed three chapters to the United Inventors Association’s flagship book, The Six Point Master Plan which has recently been translated and published in Arabic under the sponsorship of King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia.
Jack is a speaker at inventor workshops across the country. His fulltime work is guiding inventors to success through the often perilous path of developing, protecting, marketing, and financing of their inventions. His web site is www.Inventor-mentor.com. He and his wife, Mary, a high school teacher/speech pathologist, live in Southbury, Connecticut.
January 2006
Steven Thrasher
With nearly ten years in practice, Steven specializes in assisting entrepreneurs and small businesses with identifying value and strategically planning how to protect it (patents, copyrights, trade secrets), and creating portfolios that may generate licensing income. These skills extend internationally--especially to Europe, Canada, Japan, SE Asia, Mexico and Latin America. Steven is an expert in matters relating to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Clients have used their portfolios to go public, receive private placements, achieve acquisition, find investment, increase shareholder value, and stop infringement. The transactions touched by these technologies are measured in the billions of dollars.
Steven is the immediate-past chairman of the Finance Committee and Director of the United Inventors’ Association of America, and also serves on the advisory board for the Dallas MIT Forum--an affiliate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology dedicated to the education of entrepreneurs and inventors. Steven is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, as well as all courts in the State of Texas. He is also a member of the State Bar of Texas and the Intellectual Property Sections of the American Bar Association and Dallas Bar Association. Steven has authored many articles, as well as co-authored the “E-Copyright Law Handbook” by Aspen Publishing, which is used by attorneys to answer their legal questions.
Organizations as diverse as the University of Texas, Ericsson Telecommunications, and over one hundred small companies and independent inventors have chosen to rely on his skills. Representative transactions include: closing favorable licenses based on directed portfolios in several industries, including licenses touching Chile, Bolivia, and Mexico; and using directed portfolios to motivate licenses and exclusive sales in semiconductor and software industries, as well as for medical devices.
Steven received M.B.A. and J.D. degrees from Baylor University (scholarship recipient), and B.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Finance from Auburn University (with honors). Steven completed additional studies in international law at The Queens’ College, Oxford University, England, and the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, in Mexico (Steven has limited fluency in Spanish, and has a minor-equivalent in Spanish). Prior to law school, he wrote software at McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Corporation.
Tamara Monosoff
Tamara Monosoff is Founder and Chief Executive of Mom Inventors, Inc., a product development and manufacturing company serving the juvenile market and the mom inventor community.
With over fifteen years of experience in business operations, program management, and corporate communications, Monosoff combines strategic vision and entrepreneurial spirit with being a Mom to Sophia (4) and Kiara (2). It was her most recent role as a Mom that provided the inspiration for Mom Inventors. After going through the product development process herself when inventing the award-winning TP Saver™, while simultaneously juggling small children, Tamara found the support and guidance of other mom inventors to be invaluable. This inspired her to create a web-based community for other moms providing free resources related to the invention and product development process, a newsletter, message board, Mom Invented™ online store, and a featured successful mom inventor each month (www.mominventors.com). Tamara’s new book, The Mom Inventors Handbook: How to Turn Your Great Idea into the Next Big Thing was launched by McGraw-Hill in September 2005. She is also the “Ask the Expert” columnist on the topic of Inventing for Entrepreneur.com and was Working Mother Magazine’s “Hero of the Month” (July 2005).
Since May 2004, Tamara and her products have been featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, TIME, PEOPLE and Fortune Small Business Magazines. She has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, NBC’s Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, ABC’s Good Morning America Weekend, The Bloomberg Report, BusinessWeek TV, CNN LIVE, CNNfn, CNN Saturday, CNN Money, ABC News Now, The WB Network, Inside Edition, and many local news outlets including KTLA (Los Angeles Morning News), NBC-11 and KTVU-2 (San Francisco), WESH-TV (Orlando), ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX (New York, Denver, Chicago, Seattle, Oregon, San Diego, Arizona). She has also been featured in dozens of local and trade publications ranging from Inventor’s Digest to the Omaha World-Herald to Baby Shop Magazine.
Prior to founding Mom Inventors, she worked in Washington D.C. under the Clinton Administration where she earned several progressive assignments, including the position as Senior Communications Associate for the President's Initiative on Race at the White House, Education Director for the Office of White House Fellowships, and Chief of Staff for the Office of Vocational and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education.
In addition to providing leadership for Mom Inventors, Tamara is also a speaker and lecturer on "Women and Leadership: Lessons from the White House", the subject of the dissertation for her Ed.D; conferred by the University of San Francisco. She also holds an M.A. from the University of San Francisco and a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Bob Coker
My experience in the manufacturing environment stems from 15 years with Xerox Corporation starting with mid frame computers to General Manager of a very large Contract Manufacturer ($400K to $500K/Month) dealing with medical soft goods.
Since manufacturers will not, for the most part produce samples, I saw a need in 1999 and established ProtoSew.
ProtoSew is truly a one stop, turn key textile and sewn products prototype Development Company that will take your idea, concept, drawing, sketch or description and turn it into a real retail quality product.
We provide our clients with the documentation, sources, expertise, manufacturing standards, consultation, fabric and hardware selections to assure a true, reliable, high end looking product that will be made in the fastest possible way.
We lay everything on the table such as true shop rates, true material cost, exact sewing industry standards and resources for every item used in the assembly of the product.
We will critique your item to the point of perfecting its ability to fit, form and function without compromising its market appeal.
Approximately 99% of our clients are first time inventors or start up companies; hence all of our efforts are geared toward that end.
We know more of what our clients need than what the client thinks they need.
From a thought, to engineering, design, prototyping, samples, production, packaging and shipping, ProtoSew provides all the services one can think of and some they do not realize they actually need.
Robert A. Hafer
9218 Rockefeller Lane, Springfield, Virginia 22153
703-644-0958
703-371-1136 (cell)
bobhafer@aol.com
Education
University of Cincinnati, Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering 1969
Catholic University of America, Juris Doctorate 1975
Member of the Bar: District of Columbia
Commonwealth of Virginia
Experience
United States Patent and Trademark Office
- Junior Examiner in the Mechanical Disciplines
1978-1984 Primary Examiner in the Mechanical Disciplines
- Supervisory Primary Examiner
Technologies: Educational Devices Class 434
Amusements Devices (Toys) Class 446
Amusements Devices (Rides, etc.) Class 472
Kinesitherapy Class 601
Surgical Devices Class 606
Coating Implements
with Material Supply Class 401
- Senior Supervisor of Workgroup including Sporting Goods, Games, Electronic Games, Toys, Amusement Rides, Educational Devices
- Director of Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Operations
2003 Retired from U.S. Patent Office
2003-Present Acting as local representative for various out-of-state attorneys, primarily conducting interviews of patent applications with examiners
Conducting patentability, validity, and infringement searches
Providing expert opinions and testimony in a number of patent litigation suits
Teaching initial training sessions for new patent examiner in the U.S. Patent Office
Invention Story
Léona.
Comfort Wear for Women
About a year and half ago my frustration got the better of me. I kept getting aggravated with my thongs riding up on me. I personally hate wearing thongs; but, I do not want underwear lines to show through my pants. A simple solution to this problem would simply be to wear no underwear at all; however, I find that I feel naked and I also feel that this is unsanitary. I felt that there had to be a solution to this problem.
I started cutting out the back of my regular underwear and I installed them inside my pants with snaps and then Velcro. I had 3 snaps, one around my right hip, one around my left hip and a third snap in my crotch area. This way was more comfortable than a thong because I had nothing going up my butt and my panty lines did not show through my pants or bulge out at the top of the pants. After months of re-working my original idea I finally came up with a prototype. I opted to use buttons on the underwear that would attach to the inside of pants with button holes. I also decided there had to be a way to adjust the product in order to accommodate the woman’s unique shape and form. Therefore I installed 3 button holes in each area. Three buttonholes in the crotch area and three button holes on each side (hips). This enables the user to adjust the underwear to fit her more comfortably.
You are more than welcome to email me if you have any questions or comments about my product at count.on.us@hotmail.com .
Roxane Lauzon
Inventor of Strapless Underwear for Women
