Ownership and control of intellectual property (IP) rights is the key to the commercial success of inventions, says Mike Puzey, the Randburg whizzkid who has made his name internationally as the designer of the Big Boy scooter.
For those who don't know the Big Boy, it is a pavement runabout with small wheels and a weed-eater engine. It is made in Taiwan and marketed out of the US and has been sold by the thousand throughout the world.
Puzey should know about IP issues: he assigned the rights for the Big Boy to a Taiwanese manufacturer and says he has not been remunerated for all the sales.
"SA is oozing with good ideas but people are not realistic about how to turn them into commercial successes," says Puzey. " You have to come up with products that fit into society's lifestyles, that are functional and saleable, and then don't patent until the whole thing is ready to be tooled. In future I will have full ownership and control of the IP."
The 37-year-old inventor, holder of about 25 international patents, was born in Zimbabwe, where he became a commercial pilot. He is responsible for a string of mechanical gizmos, including mass market exercise machines, a pool cleaner, a hovercraft, a two-speed gearbox, a four-stroke scooter engine, and a human-powered hydrofoil called Pump-a-Bike.
Puzey's workshop is a tidy place which contradicts the stereotype of the crazy inventor in his shambolic den. Here he manufactures and tests every prototype item himself to finished standard.
"When I started, my legal skills were shocking," he says. Now he feels he is learning how to defend his products and hopes to make real money soon.
