“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” — Albert Einstein
By Raul Hernandez
Nearly a year ago, I began research on how to patent an invention. I had a couple of ideas in mind — I call my creations, Legal Lyte and Spindrift.
First, a little background about these inventions before I explain what they are and what they do.
I had no clue where to begin to register an invention with the federal government. I could have gone to a patent attorney, and it would cost about $3,000 to file the patent pending with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Washington D.C.
There was no way I was going to go to a Patents R Us scam like those featured on TV or in trade magazines. That was completely out of the question, never in the plans.
So I started in the beginning.
Initially, I read the bestselling patent 474-page book, “Patent It Yourself” by Attorney David Pressman — made notes and more notes and more. I spent hours reading and reading and re-reading what was at first difficult to understand until I began to see light at the end of the Patent Tunnel, so to speak.
I also listened to the audiobook, “Sell Your Ideas With or Without a Patent” by Stephen Key. Listened to it once, twice and recently finished listening to the entire book a third time. Stephen Key has dozens of patents, and he gives some valuable advice about the patent process and the marketing of ideas.
I did research on the Internet and watched a couple of Youtube videos about patents. I relied on the comprehensive and free information offered by the Patent and Trademark Office. They have an 800 number and the persons on the other end of the phone are helpful, patient and friendly.
Next, I hired an app development company to do the wireframes for Legal Lyte. That was a bit expensive. It cost $5,000. I relied on a Ukrainian engineer hired through Freelancers.com, however, to do the CAD for my Spindrift invention. That cost $100. Local CAD developers were going to charge about $600 for the work.
Success!
Recently, I got two patent-pending numbers for two inventions — Legal Lyte, (U.S. Patent 62/10.239) and Spindrift (U.S. Patent 67/761654).
A patent pending for an invention cost $70 (if you file the micro-entity paperwork), which is good for a year. A full patent is much more expensive, thousands of dollars. It requires more work, extensive prior-art search, and research to get final approved. It will also require hiring a patent-certified attorney to help take it the rest of the way.
But if everything goes well, the full patent lasts 20 years. In other words, the invention belongs to the creator for that long, so nobody can steal it.
I am in the process of marketing my inventions.
That requires a lot of studying the markets, writing business letters and weekly trips to the post office. It is time-consuming. So far, I have sent 12 letters to corporations and private businesses.
If anyone is interested in my inventions or to get more images and information, drop a line at [email protected].
I believe my inventions will be very successful and help solve some very serious problems. But I also understand that there is still a long road ahead and a lot of work to do.
I am not seeking or will accept any investment money from anyone. I am trying to find a corporation or business to help bring my inventions to production.
LEGAL LYTE
What do you do when you are stopped by a police officer? What do you say and what do you do during this stop?
It happens often, millions of times a day.
In the United States, about 62.9 million residents who are 16 years or older, which constitute 26 percent of the population, had one or more contact with police for many reasons in 2011, according to the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Statistics.
My app will help solve this problem with a finger tap.
Hit the Legal Lyte app button, put both hands on the steering wheel, keep your mouth closed, be polite and follow instructions.
Immediately, a pre-existing recorded message by an actor’s deep voice fills the air as soon as the app button is tapped, and it states the following:
“Hello Officer,
My name is (User’s pre-recorded name is inserted into the preexisting message) Under the Fifth and Six Amendments, I am invoking my constitutional rights not to talk to anyone about any criminal or civil matters without my attorney being present.
I do not consent to any search or submit to any test until I speak to my lawyer. Thank you, officer.
This conversation will be recorded.”
Automatically, the app sends text messages to a lawyer and a family member or friend or both to alert them to the police stop and the location where it occurred.
Meanwhile, a time/date stamped recording of the conversation begins.
The text messages instruct the lawyer or family member or friend to contact the police department if they don’t hear from the person pulled over by cops.
The recorded conversation of the stop can be sent to a lawyer or kept in an archive or deleted. This is important if a criminal arrest is made.
The Legal Lyte app, via Bluetooth, has the ability to be hooked up to car cameras and speakers. The speakers can be turned up as soon as the police officer exits from the patrol car with a tap of the app.
This process has the ability to defuse often-tense situations between police officers and the people who they stop.
The beauty of this app is that it can also be used when people are stopped while walking in the park, neighborhoods or other public and private places.
A criminal arrest can result in a loss of freedom but if there is a high bond, a person can lose their job, which means a person’s vehicle can be repossessed and the house put in foreclosure.
Lawyers can use the Legal Lyte recording as evidence to present to prosecutors or compare with the police report and more importantly if it’s necessary during a court hearing or trial.
SPINDRIFT
How can you slow down or stop a wildfire from heading toward a community where property and most importantly, lives are at stake?
There are many ways but my invention is unique and would be used to protect whole communities and private residences.
My invention, Spindrift, is a mobile fire-retardant-plastic container capable of holding hundreds of gallons of water and that can be set up quickly in desolate areas, fields or next to buildings or houses to help fight fires that cause injuries, death, and destruction.
Throughout the nation, the U.S. Department of Interior states that people cause 90 percent of wildfires. Some human-caused fires result from campfires left unattended, the burning of debris, negligently discarded cigarettes and intentional acts of arson. The remaining 10 percent are started by lightning or lava.
From January 1 to December 22, 2017, there were 66,131 wildfires, compared to 65,575 wildfires in the same period in 2016, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. About 9.8 million acres were burned in the 2017 period, compared with 5.4 million in 2016. As of December 22, for the year so far, 2017 ranked higher in the number of acres burned compared to the 10-year average, according to the Fire Center.
Here is how Spindrift works:
A large area is watered by the mobile containers (Spindrifts) that are easy to set-up in strategic spots that create a large wet buffer between the flames can help the fire and fire cinders from spreading to populated areas or rural houses.
Dozens of containers can be put in remote areas within close proximity of a raging or slow-moving fire. Or, they can be put near or next to a residence to sprinkle water on top of a house and the immediate surroundings of the residence.
These are the parts included alongside the FIGs.
FIG. 1 — Plastic Lid
FIG. 2 — Small Hol
FIG. 3 — Plastic Cap
FIG. 4 — Connecting Pipes
FIG. 5 — Top Pipe that Connects to Sprinkler
FIG. 6 — Sprinker
FIG. 7/8 — Hooks and Handles
FIG. 9 — Metal Stand
FIG. 10/11 — Hooks
FIG. 12 — Pump
FIG. 13 — Storage Box
FIG. 14 — Solar-Powered Remote Control Device
FIG. 15 — Opening for Large Water Hose
FIG. 16 — Float
FIG. 17 — Protruding Pipe
FIG. 18 — Small Hose
FIG. 19 — Large Hose
Putting out unexpected and spreading hotspots started by fire cinders and debris makes firefighting a much more difficult job and most importantly, increases the danger to lives and properties.
These sprinklers will be able to spray from 20 gallons to 1,000 gallons-per-minute or more.
The water spray could also be vertical to send a fine mist high into the air where it can spread throughout an area by winds. This will create a thick or thin wall of mist, depending on the jet flow. A fine vertical spray wall will make it difficult for fire cinders or smoldering debris to be carried by winds to dry places and ignite a dry spot or area.
A container is equipped with a plastic lid that can be removed. Inside and on the bottom of the container is a water pump that is connected to a fire-retardant pipe that will protrude through a small hole on the plastic lid.
The protruding pipe hole can be temporarily sealed with a removable plastic cap when not in use to prevent contaminants from entering the container. The hole can also be used to refill the container with gallons of water.
The protruding pipe can be connected to individual pipes to form a long row of fire-retardant plastic piping that will increase the height of the protruding pipe to five or many more feet higher.
The last attached plastic pipe will have the capacity to be hooked up or attached to a large or small standard market sprinkler.
The height of the pipeline will depend on how far and high the water will be sprayed on a field or large patch of dry land.
Most importantly, wind direction and the speed of the fires will determine where the containers will be put on the ground.
Spindrift containers have metal latches or handles on top and outside to enable for full containers can be lifted by helicopters and lowered on the ground in areas where they will be quickly placed by firefighters on the ground.
The containers will have metal stands to protect the bottoms. Each container will have metal ring hooks. Those hooks will be used put steel stakes — found in box casing on the side of the containers — to hold down the containers to the ground and keep strong winds from blowing away or tipping the containers.
Refilling of these containers with water will be done by helicopters or fire and water trucks. In some cases, from ponds, lakes, streams, wells, swimming pools, water faucets and other sources.
The containers will also have a hole on top of the removable lid. The hole’s entrance will be used to refill the containers, if necessary, with water by helicopter if they remain in the same spot or are repositioned to another location.
Sprinklers can have adjustable stops for full or part circle coverage. Also, they will have adjustable jet breakers for changes in a stream pattern. The water spray could also be verticle to send a fine mist high into the air and spread by winds. This will create a thick or thin wall of mist, depending on the jet flow.
The water will be used to stop a fire from spreading or help block hot fire cinders and light smoldering debris carried by the wind from spreading to dry areas and starting new fires.
Putting out unpredictable hotspots started by fire cinders and debris makes firefighting a much more difficult job and most importantly, increases the danger to lives and properties.
When the dozens of containers are put in remote areas within close proximity of a raging fire and set up strategically like in a V or L shape or in row placements to cover large areas, they can stop or slow down the spread of the flames.
When the container is filled with water, the powerful pump will send the water up the fire-retardant, plastic pipeline and out through equally powerful sprinklers that can send water across a wide swath of land, bushes, and trees.
The wet ground serves as a buffer and will make it difficult for hot cinders in the air from a nearby fire to reignite and spread if it lands on dry debris, brush or leaves.
A solar-powered, remote-control device attached to the container will enable the sprinklers to start or shut off at certain times of the day or night.
This is especially important because night-time darkness, smoke, and strong winds limit firefighting.
The remote-controlled device will also be able to measure wind velocity and direction; gauge the amount of water in the container, and adjust the flow and direction of the water being sprayed.
At the bottom of the container, another fire-retardant fitting will protrude to hook up to an ordinary garden hose. The hose can be connected to a water pump that will suck up water from different sources including a water faucet, swimming pool, well, pond, stream or other sources.
A standard float inside the container can be used to regulate the water flow inside the container.
The container will be primarily used to fight fires in remote areas by wetting large swaths of land and keeping fires from spreading, especially at night when firefighting aircraft like the Super Scooper is grounded because of visibility or fire trucks can’t be sent to rugged terrains with narrow roads.
But Spindrift can also be set up near a house with the connecting pipeline going above a house roof. If a fire occurs, the homeowner will be able to turn on the remote-control Spindrift system and sprinkle water throughout a large area on his property to try and stop hot amber from starting a fire on his property.
If residents must evacuate because of the fire, they can set up the containers and timers and leave, knowing that a remote control is built into the Spindrift system.
In many fires, residents sometimes stay behind and use garden hoses to wet rooftops and protect property. This puts residents and homeowners in a dangerous spot and with the hazardous task of climbing ladders to hose down their house’s roof.
The need to find solutions to fight fires is growing and scientists say that one contributing factor is climate change that leads to more destructive fires.