Update: Innovation Direct™ facilitates conference call between inventor and potential licensee of bedding product…

Hello, Juan C. Blanco, Innovation Direct™’s Director of Product Licensing, checking in with our final Thursday update. Earlier Thursday, the Innovation Direct™ representative that has managed the advanced level of interest demonstrated for the last year and a half in a bedding accessory by a Florida-based manufacturer facilitated a conference call between the inventor and the potential licensee. We had reported on the scheduling of this call in a January 16th entry (“Update: International Technology Transfer finalizes date of conference call with potential licensee and inventor of bedding product…“).

The conversation centered around the fact that the potential licensee is still waiting on final production cost estimates from the factory in China he is dealing with. He is also waiting on a high quality sample of the product that his salespeople can in turn take to various retail outlets for market testing. The potential licensee did explain that his salespeople had gone out and conducted preliminary test marketing by describing the product in general terms but without a visual, they have received nothing beyond preliminary curiosity and interest about how the item would be packaged, what it would look like, etc.

Consequently, the potential licensee went on to explain, he will be contracting a graphic artist to put together some packaging and point-of-sale display mock-ups that will help provide a tangible picture to those who it is presented to in the future. The gentleman did emphasize that he feels that mass retail outlets will be the best distribution points for the product, as a hotel chain he conversed about the invention with was not interested.

Without final production costs, we will not be able to proceed to the next level of licensing discussions, which would include specifics on royalties. By the date of the next call, which would likely be within a month, the manufacturer is aiming to have specific figures from the factory in China, as well as drafts of the aforementioned visual material. As has become customary throughout the life cycle of this interest, we will update you on any developments here in this space. Stay tuned!