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In his new book, Bob Merrick advises other aspiring inventors to create simple gadgets that can be easily made.

Self-Made

Inventor Bob Merrick champions the art of simple gadgets

By Pam Marino

"Why didn't I think of that?"

Everyone has asked that question after coming across some handy yet simple gadget.

Bob Merrick is one of the people who actually has thought of some pretty useful gadgets. And he's sold millions of his products over the 30 years he's been inventing.

The 31-year Cupertino resident and Sunnyvale businessman has invented such items as a business-card punch that instantly transforms business cards into Rolodex file cards, and a disposable Lint Mitt used in hotels and dry cleaning stores.

How does he come up with his ideas?

"You just kind of keep your antennas going," Merrick said.

Merrick got the idea for the punch after spending lots of time taping business cards to blank Rolodex cards so he could keep them in his Rolodex file. After discovering that no one was making a punch like the one he envisioned, he developed the small plastic device and had it manufactured in 1986. McWhorter's was his first customer.

He said he has sold nearly four million of the punches around the world. They sell for about $5 each in office supply stores.

Merrick, a graduate of UC-Berkeley and a Navy veteran, was well on his way to a successful corporate advertising career when he became an inventor.

"I always thought the best thing in the world would be to have your own product," Merrick said. And with his advertising background, he knew that he could market and sell whatever product he developed.

In 1966, after he left Fairchild to work at an advertising agency, he developed a military-pay slide rule, called the Pay-Rule. He borrowed $1,200 from his life insurance policy and $800 from his savings account to scrape up the $2,000 he needed to pay a company to manufacture 5,000 Pay-Rules. They sat in his hall closet as he spent the next two years trying to sell them. And thanks to a pay raise for military personnel, his entire inventory became obsolete; the neighborhood kids helped update the slide rules with new inserts while sitting in front of the TV.

Merrick's persistence paid off when he received a major government contract for hundreds of thousands of Pay-Rules. Years later, computers would make the slide rules obsolete, but Merrick was well on his way to other inventing successes.

In 1977 he built the office building at the corner of Hollenbeck and Fremont avenues in Sunnyvale where Merrick Industries is still headquartered. His wife, Lee, works in their Cupertino home keeping track of the books, and his son, John, an inventor himself, runs a distributorship selling Merrick Industries' products, as well as thousands of other promotional products, to Silicon Valley businesses. His two daughters, Anne and Katy, both worked for Merrick for a while before they moved away.

John's invention competes with his Dad's business-card punch. He invented a plastic tab that sticks on the bottom of business cards to transform them into Rolodex cards. The father-and-son inventors appeared on a nationally syndicated show several years ago called Why Didn't I Think of That with host Will Shriner. John's invention won a $2,000 prize.

One of Merrick's latest products is a Rolodex mirror, which is simply a mirror cut in the shape of a Rolodex card with one of John's tabs on the bottom. The Rolodex company is poised to offer 50,000 of the mirrors in office supply stores nationwide this June, as well as Merrick's business-card punch. Merrick's company already sells the mirrors to companies who want their logo imprinted on them to give away to customers.

Merrick is passionate about inventing and inventors; he spent three years as president of the California Inventor's Council. For years he taught workshops and gave speeches to inventors and would-be inventors detailing his success story, which led to his decision to write a book called Stand Alone, Inventor! And Make Money With Your New Product Ideas.

Published last year, the book lists step-by-step instructions on how an individual, or "stand-alone," inventor can develop a product, patent it and bring it to market. Merrick doesn't believe in selling an idea to someone else; he encourages inventors to stick with their inventions until they are successful.

Following his own advice on producing inventions, Merrick published the book himself through what is called Lee Publications. The book is offered on Amazon.com, the Internet mega-bookseller. Locally it can be found at McWhorter's, Stacey's, Keppler's, Barnes & Noble and Borders Books. He also has his own Web site, bobmerrick.com, where the book is sold. Merrick said he estimates he will sell 15,000 to 20,000 books in the next year and a half.

He said a couple of colleges have expressed interest in making the book required reading for entrepreneur classes. The book is also in 180 libraries nationwide.

He gets a lot of email from people who have read the book and want Merrick to answer questions about their inventions. "I try to answer them if I can, and if I have time," Merrick said.

He said he believes the book taps an unmet need to provide information to struggling inventors. The book decribes Merrick's top-10 rules for individual inventors.

One of Merrick's rules: Develop something small and simple that can easily be transported and demonstrated. Merrick said if producing and marketing a product is beyond what the inventor can manage, "then it's not a good invention for you."

Some other rules: "Develop products that offer repeat sales," and "Devise products with a low manufacturing cost." Merrick doesn't believe in inventors investing in costly manufacturing equipment; instead he advises that they find companies that will "outsource" the product.

Of course, Merrick advises that the products should be created for a large market and priced right to sell.

Merrick's inventions have always been small and relatively simple. One of his inventions is a see-through calendar sticker for watch crystals. Companies put their logos on the stickers as a constant reminder to customers. Merrick said that product was popular for about the length of its 17-year patent. In the 1980s digital watches became popular, making his watch calendar passé. Merrick's company still produces the calendars for some customers, however.

His Lint Mitt is a plastic envelope worn over the hand. One side is sticky, after removing the protective paper, and the other side is imprinted with the name of the hotel that is providing the Lint Mitt to guests.

Merrick-the-inventor-and-author is becoming a lobbyist as well. He's trying to convince California senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein to vote against Senate Bill S507, which would change U.S. patent rules. Instead of keeping plans for patents secret until they are on the market, the new rules would automatically make plans public 18 months from first application.

Merrick said large companies are pushing hard for the new rules so they can see what foreign companies applying for U.S. patents are working on. Merrick said having the plans made public before they are fully protected by a patent could be disastrous for stand-alone inventors, who would then be forced to take to court anyone who infringed on the plans.

What's next for Merrick? He said he is trying to capitalize on the products he already sells, but admits, "I've got a couple of ideas cooking."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, April 22, 1998.
©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.