Marblar Matches Ivory Tower Research and Entrepreneurs
Do you have The Big Idea for The Next Big Thing? What’s holding you back? If it’s the research and development, there’s now a chance your idea might make it to market—and potentially earn royalties—by using previously patented technology. London-based Marblar is an idea and technology matchmaker of sorts with the mantra "unleash your creativity on unused inventions."
Here’s how it works.
Marblar obtained access to patented technologies from research institutes, universities, and private companies. Now the company has announced added patents from the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), the University of Pennsylvania, and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI). You can browse these technologies according to your product or service idea. Or, maybe you'll be inspired with a new idea.
As part of the collaborative or crowdsourcing model, anyone in the community can contribute to help develop product ideas based on these patented technologies. For example, someone may help with a prototype or identify technical milestones.
Marblar rewards users who provide useful data or information by giving them "marbles." The more you contribute, the more marbles you earn, and the larger your ownership stake if the idea eventually makes it to market. The contributing Marblar community shares in a percentage of the royalties.
Commercial partners can choose to develop and market the most promising ideas into new products, while licensing the technology from the technology holder. And in a move that may take Marblar’s model to the next level, TechCrunch explains how the company enlisted the head of product innovation at Samsung Electronics to work with Marblar.
We were really tactical in our approach, and on who we reached out to. A lot of entrepreneurs think hustling is just about emailing a bunch of people you don’t know. We investigated deeply each person we approached. Our stalking would have made Edward Snowden boil.
Some of the product areas commercial partners seem to be currently interested in: human-device interactions, connected devices, wearable technology, renewable energy, transportation, mobile health, and diagnostics and imaging.
"More than 95 percent of patents just sit there, unused," said Marblar CEO Daniel Perez via ABC News, noting that research and development departments may have spent millions of dollars to develop these patents. "They're just kind of laying dormant."
Are you interested in participating in moving research out of the Ivory Tower and into the market? If so, here are a few things to think about: Who is the potential customer? What’s the value proposition—the problem that your product will solve for the customer? How is your product better than the rest of the pack?
Good luck!
