April 20, 2024 • 28 mins
Don't miss this inspiring episode of Got Invention Show! Join us as we talk with inventor Michael Gilman, creator of the Cleansing Swab for Needle Pens Assembly. Diagnosed with diabetes, Michael's invention streamlines insulin injections, offering a convenient, sanitized solution. Learn about his journey from idea to patent and how he's now seeking to license his invention for royalties.
mj@mjgilman.com
--------------------------------------------
About Got Invention Show:
Welcome to the Got Invention Show!
Listen to inventors interviews sharing their invention story to the world! Are you patent pending? Do you have a prototype to show and demonstrate? Are you looking to earn royalties from your invention? Are you looking for a manufacturer? Do you want to raise money or find an investor? Do you want to sell your invention? Learn from other inventors or let’s see and hear about your big invention idea!
Show & tell us about your invention, have your very own video interview to be proud of! Your video can be used to: Post to your social media Add on your website Send to bloggers & editors Pitch to licensees or investors Listen to inventor interviews or sign up: https://gotinventionshow.com/
Your Host of Got Invention Show, Brian Fried. Brian is the host of Got Invention Radio, with interviews of high profile guests including the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Lori Greiner from ABC's Shark Tank, & over 150 individual interviews.
Brian connects and guides inventors to earn royalties from their inventions to licensees and brand properties looking for new ideas and intellectual property to expand existing or add to new product lines.
Inventor Smart: https://inventorsmart.com/
Host Inventor Expert and Invention Consultant Brian Fried: https://brianfried.com/
Check out the launch of a very exciting app, finally a community for inventors!! Our very own social media, networking, events and resources to help each other with our big ideas! The Inventor Smart Community app now available on Google Play or Apple App Store https://inventorsmart.app
mj@mjgilman.com
--------------------------------------------
About Got Invention Show:
Welcome to the Got Invention Show!
Listen to inventors interviews sharing their invention story to the world! Are you patent pending? Do you have a prototype to show and demonstrate? Are you looking to earn royalties from your invention? Are you looking for a manufacturer? Do you want to raise money or find an investor? Do you want to sell your invention? Learn from other inventors or let’s see and hear about your big invention idea!
Show & tell us about your invention, have your very own video interview to be proud of! Your video can be used to: Post to your social media Add on your website Send to bloggers & editors Pitch to licensees or investors Listen to inventor interviews or sign up: https://gotinventionshow.com/
Your Host of Got Invention Show, Brian Fried. Brian is the host of Got Invention Radio, with interviews of high profile guests including the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Lori Greiner from ABC's Shark Tank, & over 150 individual interviews.
Brian connects and guides inventors to earn royalties from their inventions to licensees and brand properties looking for new ideas and intellectual property to expand existing or add to new product lines.
Inventor Smart: https://inventorsmart.com/
Host Inventor Expert and Invention Consultant Brian Fried: https://brianfried.com/
Check out the launch of a very exciting app, finally a community for inventors!! Our very own social media, networking, events and resources to help each other with our big ideas! The Inventor Smart Community app now available on Google Play or Apple App Store https://inventorsmart.app
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:17):
Welcome to gott Invention Show. I'myour host Brian Freed, and our guest
is Michael Gilman. He is theinventor of the pen needle and cleansing swab
combo. Welcome to the show,Michael, Thank you, Brian, Thank
you. Michael. You're a veryinteresting guy. I know you're involved with
(00:37):
a lot of activity, especially yourpen needle, but let's talk about who
you are, where you're from,and what do you do for a living.
Terrific. My name is Michael Gilman. I reside in Syracuse, New
York, and I have a hugetitle with an agency called SCORE that I
know you are familiar with. I'ma senior business systems analyst for SCORE.
(01:00):
Okay, and you've been doing thatfor quite some time, I know,
right. I started as a volunteerand then within four months it's been fourteen
years. Wow. Well, Icould tell you that SCORE is a tremendous
resource for inventors and entrepreneurs. Whydon't you quickly tell us what you do
there. I help them with policyand procedure. Look at all their numbers,
(01:22):
and since I have experienced running achapter here in Syracuse, I've got
a little more insight than most peoplethere. Well, and what is Score
actually Score provides has ten thousand volunteersall across the country that provides free I
say free mentorship in running a business. When I say free, it's free
(01:45):
of costs. But it's going tocost you, really your time and energy.
You have to do the work.We'll give you guidance. Got it.
So, Michael, tell us aboutyourself and why you invented this pen
needle and cleansing swab combo. Whatwas the problem that you had, Brian,
(02:06):
As they say, you know,things happen. You know, nature
is really the driver of all this. So I at the time was in
construction and became diabetic and never ina clean place to shoot myself. The
six or seven times I had toshoot myself. They made it easy,
(02:27):
you know. It took away thesyringe and gave me a pen, which
was terrific, and a pen needle. But then I still had to carry
on top of those two things,I had to carry alcohol swabs as well,
and it was never a clean,easy place to give myself the insulin
shots. It just occurred to methat it'd be so much nicer to only
carry the pen and the needle soagain the mother of invention. You know,
(02:54):
needs are in the mother invention.I decided that it would be really
helpful if the alcohol swab was actuallypart of the label of the pen needle,
the needle itself, so you didn'thave to carry an extra thing,
you know, an extra alcohol swab, which would open up in your pocket
(03:14):
and make a mess, and itwouldn't get all dried out. It was
just sealed by being within the penneedle itself. Did you find that you
weren't the only person that had thiskind of problem where let's say you were
out and about, whether you werein your construction site or you're out and
about and all of a sudden youneed to do your procedure and you're without
(03:37):
a swab to clean, and thenmost people will just do it without cleaning,
right absolutely. And you know,it's funny that you mentioned it part
of my homework, and all thiswas being out and about, happened to
see someone shoot without cleaning. Igo over and introduce myself and ask them
(03:58):
why, you know, what wouldmake them use the alcohol swab? And
one guy actually had it the swabright there, but he said, ah,
I never tear it open. Ifthat swab was inside the label where
you pull the label off and it'sin your hand already. Would you use
it? Absolutely, he said tome. So that was the some of
my you know, it happened timeand time again as I was researching to
(04:20):
see does this have value? Youknow, Michael me personally, I have
an invention also that it's something thatyou use every day. But what I
did was add another feature to itto make people's lives easier. And pretty
much for the same price is whatpeople pay for the first thing, you're
(04:40):
getting a little bit more for thesecond thing, and or maybe a lot
more. And especially with your situation, the convenience it, it's almost like
a win win. So you havea product and a concept that you came
up with. So let's put upthis video. Is that okay, Michael,
let's put a video to show theaudio. Absolutely. Michael Gilman here
(05:03):
introducing you to a new innovative patent. Just scan this QR code introducing Patent
US eleven two, five three,six eight seven B two by Michael Gilman,
Revolutionizing safety and convenience for pen needleusers. Ever thought twice about injecting
(05:24):
in a public place, Concerned aboutcleanliness, We get it. Public places
aren't always sterile, and sometimes youforget your cleaning supplies. Here's the game
changer, A cleansing swab incorporated rightwith the needle. Just peel clean and
inject. It's that simple. Nomore risks, no more forgetting interested in
(05:46):
this patent or have questions. Reachout to Michael Gilman Directly scan the QR
code to view the full patent details, safety and convenience all in one.
Wow. So what you did wasactually put the swab into the top of
(06:10):
the pen needle and now you kindof just peel it off to be able
to have that kind of effect ofjust having that combo. When you need
the pen needle, you have it, and then the swab is right attached.
So tell us, tell us alittle bit more, Michael. So
it was as I did my researchand realized that it was probably something that
(06:32):
was worth going after. I decidedit was you know, let's time,
let's let's go ahead and go aftera patent for it. And when I
reached out to a couple of differentattorneys, you know, there was a
process involved. I didn't have anydrawings at that point. I was fortunate
that the guy that was paired withme was a good artist and was able
(06:57):
to take my conception and drawn out. And it took a very long time.
The process was very, very long. We started in two thousand and
eight and it wasn't until twenty twentytwo that it was finally completely approved.
It was very easy to get theprovisional, but I went right from provisional
(07:21):
immediately without waiting to a published patent, fully published bract. So the label
has the alcohol swab right on it, attached to it, and it gets
sealed with another label exactly the samesize right over it so that harmatically seals
it so it can't dry out.And then all that gets attached to the
(07:46):
actual what they call the canula,the fixture of the pen needle itself.
So you see how it looks withthe pen needle on the left there and
the label. We pull the labeloff, the alcohol swab is right there,
You clean, do the cleaning,you install the needle on the end
of the pen, and you're allsetting ready to shoot, no fuss,
(08:09):
no mut Wow. So, Michael, when you first came up with the
idea, what was that moment likewhen you said, you know what,
I'm tired of carrying around or Ijust forgot my swab. I'm in a
dirty environment. I want to beable to do the right thing and take
care of myself and clean before Ihave to stick myself with the pen needle.
(08:33):
What was that moment like when youcame up with the idea? Leading
up to it was lots of frustration. I didn't want to get an infection.
Yeah. Oh, and it wasnever in places that were really anywhere
clean at all, and so itwas very you know, I was very
frustrating to have to keep track ofall that stuff. And so when I
(08:54):
came up with the idea and startedjust talking to some people about it,
there was excitement and then you know, all that just led into me being
excited about, you know, takingto the next level. How far can
I go with it? When youwere talking about being excited and other people
being excited about it, did yougo to other diabetics and ask them this
(09:16):
question or just people around you?What was kind of that who shared with
you that experience? It was like, I say, boots on the ground.
I was in a restaurant, seesomeone shoot, go right over and
introduce myself, and I asked themI noticed you gave yourself some insulin,
but you didn't clean you know,It's like yeah, and they actually some
(09:39):
of them showed me, well,we have the OSCO operator here, but
it's a pain in the neck.So I showed him my concept and they're
like, well, if it wasalready in my fingers already, why would
I not do it? Of courseI'd do it. If it's already in
my fingers. I don't have tounwrap anything else or carry something else,
don't need to carry a big bagwith all this stuff. He thought it
(10:00):
was you know, the folks thatI ran into thought it was an excellent,
excellent idea. Now, after yourealized that you had something and you
were onto something here this idea.You mentioned that you went to file a
provisional patent application, so that givesyou the right for one year to say
that your patent pending while you're kindof exploring the market, or before you
(10:22):
file the non provisional patent application.But let's just go back for a second,
Michael, was that the first thingyou did immediately go through getting a
patent or did you take a swab? Did you try to figure out how
it was going to fit under thatPeel tell us about that experience of just
kind of like taking it out ofyour head and making it into some sort
(10:45):
of reality, even if it wasa prototype. Yeah. So really,
when I was just still conceptualizing itand talking two folks, yeah, I
didn't want to start the provision thepatent process unless I had the money.
So I checked, you know,touch base with several different patent attorneys just
(11:05):
to get an idea what's it goingto cost me? And then honestly,
I put it. I put itaside for a while until I had the
money set aside. Once I hadthe money set aside, then I reached
out and I started the conversation.And the first question they asked me,
of course, once I sat downwith the with the guy that was helping
me with it, was so,how is this going to work? And
(11:26):
we actually needed to come up withtwo or three different ways of doing it
to make sure that we had enoughclaims so that nobody else would have something
similar to it. And uh sothat that was the process, and that's
uh, you know, through histhis that person's drawings, different types of
drawings, and and we tried differentways, and we had lots and lots
(11:50):
of discussions about how it would workand how would we keep it dry so,
you know, so it wouldn't I'msorry, so it wouldn't dry out
when it was packed. And sowe did a lot of that type of
checking and going back and forth beforewe decided, okay, we have enough
information to apply for the provisional pattern. Well, most of the people that
(12:11):
are patent attorneys or agents have somesort of engineering background. Not all of
them do, but for the mostpart, some do. Do you feel
like your patent attorney or agent thatyou went to you mentioned they kind of
helped you to figure out how youwere going to be able to protect it,
but also how it worked. Didyou kind of bring it to the
(12:31):
table of how it worked. Ibrought to the table how it worked.
And then when they said, hey, we need to have a couple other
options to do it, well,that took some time for me to ferret
out to play with it in myhead. Tried different drawings and different ways
to attach a swab of sort thatwas impregnated with a cleansing solution like alcohol,
(12:58):
and to keep it so it doesn'tdraw out. That was important.
It couldn't speak into the needle andit couldn't dry out either, So that
was a that was a chore.He was not an engineer, but he
was you know, he certainly knewhis stuff about the patents and about the
claims, and we did all kindsof searching in different ways of comparing different
(13:20):
things to make sure that we wereclean. Well, here you are,
Michael, you're a diabetic, andall of a sudden, you find a
better way to be able to gothrough the steps that you need to to
actually uh do what you have todo with your pen needle. And all
of a sudden, now you decidedthat you're going to be an inventor,
or you didn't. You didn't expectto be an inventor. You're going about
(13:43):
your day and now all of asudden you have this idea, and now
you're looking into the way that thepen needles are, the way that the
moisture of wipes. How is itgoing to stay underneath and stay dry wet
instead of dry? What was wasit just easy for you to do or
(14:05):
what kind of hurdles did you haveto get through just to get it to
that point to be able to knowthat you have something. Well, I'm
a technical guy to begin with,and probably had several ideas over the years,
different types of ideas. Never tookthe step to go and patent it,
and of course, you know,time passes and other people came up
(14:28):
with the same idea. So thisone here as soon as I knew what
it was going to cost me.You know, the reality was, I
worked very hard to get the moneyset aside so that I didn't have to
cost me anything they have to strugglefor it, didn't have to make payments
on it, and it made itgo through so much better, and I
could do it much faster, eventhough it took a forever time to make
(14:50):
it happen. Now you could havegone and continue without going through and filing
for a patent, even though youwere limited on funds. You decided that
you needed some sort of intellectual propertyprotection. Tell us why, you know,
Brian, it was such a simpleidea. You start talking about it,
(15:13):
someone else is going to do it. You know. It's those really,
you know, they keep it simple, stupid. You know the kiss
concept. It's so easy, itmakes so much sense. Why wouldn't they
be doing that in the first place. So it's better off for you to
have some sort of protection. Thisway, you might have some options.
So perhaps you might want to manufactureit and start your own business and be
(15:37):
able to sell the pen needles withthe combination involved. But maybe you don't
necessarily want to go into business foryourself that way, So the other option
might be that you may want tolicense it to earn royalties. So when
you decided to start working on thisinvention and you filed for the patent,
(15:58):
what was the path that you wereexpecting to go through. My concept was
always to license it out. I'ma small guy. I'm not going to
build a manufacturing plant. The youknow, the needle margins are not huge
when you're looking at when you're asmall guy buying equipment to handle that stuff,
(16:22):
and it's you know, it's gotto be sterile, all these different
things. It made no sense forme to to say, oh, let
me go manufacture it, and lotsof folks once I got it, pushed
very hard for me to go intomanufacturing. It makes most sense. This
is a simplistic thing. The processesare already out there. It doesn't change
(16:42):
any manufacturing piece. It just putsa different label on which is the same
size. So it made much moresense to try and license it out.
So for you, licensing that meansthat you're going to one of the major
players. Mostly you probably want togo to one of them that manufacture pen
(17:04):
needles and distribute pen needles, andyou would look to add your pen needle
and cleansing swab combo to their productline and they would manufacture it, they
would distribute it, and every timeone of them sells, you would earn
a royalty from it. That's thegoal. Okay, So here you are.
(17:27):
You went through the iterations of gettingit, where you had some sort
of prototype, you went to patentit or at least file for the patent,
and what did you do after that? Michael, It was a long
road. We ended up with apatent examiner who immediately got when she once
(17:52):
she got assigned my case went onvacation, and of course we were in
the pandemic, so she never cameback and it took almost eight months for
us to call, you know,finally get a hold of the office and
say what's going on. So theyassigned me to a new examiner who was
actually very new, and oh,every step of the way he stopped us.
(18:15):
So it was a very long interestingprocess. In fact, on your
show when you had the patent peoplecome in it talked about a program.
We kind of did the same thingwithout using the program. The attorney that
I was working with had a process. We ended up with a supervisor who
helped make everything happen. When youfiled, you did the non you did
(18:37):
the provisional. Then before the yearyou converted it to the non provisional.
While you were waiting correct, immediado anything or did you wait until the
patent was actually issued? Well?What we One of the things that came
out of the delays was we neededto add a couple more claims. So
(19:00):
I came up with two other waysto install, if you will, the
the swab, the alcohol swab,and you know, the cleansing material in
different areas of that needle. Initiallyit was very simplistic. So as we
went through these iterations, uh toanswer the the examiners, you know,
(19:22):
concerns. You know that we builtit along the way. Okay, so
you kept going. You figured outwhat you can do, what you can't
do, adding some more, whatdo you think are the main features like
for us as consumers, if wewere going to use something like this,
it looks you're right, it lookskind of simple. But what do you
(19:42):
what is the claim? What isthe claim to fame for this invention,
this patent that makes it unique thatyou could call your own, Michael,
it's you know, first off,you know, convenience, convenience, convenience,
But more importantly, ask yourself question, when you go to the doctor,
to the hospital, or any medicalperson and they go to give you
(20:07):
a shot, what's the very firstthing they do? No matter what,
they clean the skin, they cleanthe air. There's no question. You
know, as much as you can, you can say, oh, people
give shots all the time without cleaningit. You know what, there's a
reason the hospitals and all the medicalprofessionals always always clean it. It's important.
Why would you chance getting yourself aninfection? So this is just it's
(20:32):
convenience and it makes you want todo it because it's right there in your
hand. So, Michael, whathave you done so far? Now?
So you have the prototype, youhave the patent, you're on this show.
What have you done so far?Because at this point it's still a
concept. It's still a prototype,a fully issued utility patent. You have
(20:57):
assets? Are yours? So whathave you done so far to try to
commercialize this? Reached out to literallyhundreds of folks to you know, just
trying to put it out there,trying to share the concept, share the
patent, you know, trying todrum up interest. It's it's a long
(21:19):
road of drumming, beating my ownmy own drums. And you know,
we we we researched who the bigguys were and we went right after them,
and they immediately ignored us. Soit's a it's a process, and
and you can't just simply give up. It's a process. You've got to
(21:41):
have some stamina to get through this. You know, it is a lot
of work, but I'm sure there'slight at the end of the tunnel somewhere.
In the medical device world, mostof the time they require an issued
patent, which you have, andthey either have some sort of innovation area
(22:03):
or they have some kind of submissionfor innovation area, and you've gone through
that. You're looking to get oneof the major players to be able to
pick this up, because to beable to add an extra feature of function
with their machinery probably won't take muchfor them. It is a new process
(22:25):
that they have to go through.But look at the convenience that they can
have. It makes what you havecan give a pen needle manufacturer a competitive
advantage in the market, and thatreally is what's going to make a difference
between what's out there and yours.Yours, you know, Brian, there's
(22:45):
no doubt, you know. Thesimplistic piece of the design, it's the
label. So the label is configuredwhere it's got two labels, one on
top of the other and in betweenit's sandwich. You is that swab when
they go ahead and add it tothe manufacturing piece, it's just the label.
(23:07):
It's not any different. The machinethat they've used to put that one
label on right now will work thesame way with the two labels that are
stuck together and sealed. So there'syou know, to put this into someone's
process is not a big deal.It's not a big lift. The cost
(23:29):
is the extra label and the andthe swab. And on the right of
that in the center you see thelabel taking apart where one side of the
label actually has the alcohol swab rightattached to it, and all that you
know, what it leaves is theis the needle itself. The canula they
(23:52):
call it, which screws onto thepen and you pull that cover off in
and exposes a needle. So whileyou pull that, you've got the all
call swab in your hand. Youclean the site where you're going to shoot,
you put the needle on, andyou shoot. It's all by that
time, it's all dry, andit's simple, simple, convenient as could
(24:14):
be. Michael. There are peoplein our audience that have an idea in
their head. Maybe they had anidea at one point and then ten years
later they see it out there andthey say, I would have, could
have, should have done it.But you stop and you are moving forward
with your idea. You're looking forthat potential partner, manufacturing partner with distribution,
(24:37):
one of the players that are inthe pen needle industry. But just
going through your journey and being aninventor and being involved at score with other
business owners, and just kind ofgoing through in that mindset. For the
people that are watching or listening,what are some words of wisdom and advice
that you can give when somebody hasan idea to keep their invention moving forward.
(24:59):
Michael, I can tell you nevergive up. It is such a
fun ride, a great journey togo through. Yeah, there's some difficult
times. Every journey has its difficultpieces, but honestly it's well worth it.
No one was more excited than mewhen I got the provisional, and
(25:21):
then again no one was more excitedto me when I got the actual non
provisional. So just a great ride, h you know, and I certainly
you know folks at SCORE will helpwith some of this stuff. Certainly all
about business from Score. But don'tgive up, keep on going, keep
on going. That's a great lesson. So Michael, you're open to licensing
(25:47):
this invention, this intellectual property ofa patent to earn royalties. Your invention
is a pen needle and cleansing swabcombo is a little bit more of a
fancier term on the patent, whichis more about the assembly of having the
pen needle the cleansing swab together assembled. So how do we get in touch
(26:08):
with you? Michael? If thereis somebody out there that has a connection
with some of the major players inthe pen needle industry, how can they
get in touch with you? Bestway is email and you send it to
m J at m J G IL M A N dot com. That's
(26:32):
my email, it's my name.It's easy to do. What are some
of the major players in the industry, Michael. The ones that you use
are the ones that you know ofthat that you're looking to get as a
partner. BD is one of them. They're they're probably the largest one out
there. The other ones are allunder no name. I think there's one
(26:56):
other one. Lily is another one, but the rest of them are all
no name, which is great.They you know, I should be able
to get my foot in the door, but it's very difficult to get our
foot in the door. We keeptrying. Good well, Michael. We
wish you all the best. Youhave a solution for the people out there
(27:18):
to keep them clean before they haveto go through the process of using their
pen needle. So congratulations on gettingit to this point and we're looking forward
to hearing much success and other peopleor that will use it for the same
reason that you came up with itfor yourself and for other people. Hopefully
we'll be able to use it soon. So thank you, Michael. We
(27:41):
wish you all the best. We'llsee you against SI. Thank you,
thank you, thanks again. Okay, that was Michael Gilman Uh. He
has the pen, needle and cleansingswab combo. If you'd like to be
a guest on the Got Invention Show, you can go to gottenventionshow dot com.
Until then, keep making your bigideas happen, keep moving forward.
(28:03):
We'll see you again soon
Welcome to gott Invention Show. I'myour host Brian Freed, and our guest
is Michael Gilman. He is theinventor of the pen needle and cleansing swab
combo. Welcome to the show,Michael, Thank you, Brian, Thank
you. Michael. You're a veryinteresting guy. I know you're involved with
(00:37):
a lot of activity, especially yourpen needle, but let's talk about who
you are, where you're from,and what do you do for a living.
Terrific. My name is Michael Gilman. I reside in Syracuse, New
York, and I have a hugetitle with an agency called SCORE that I
know you are familiar with. I'ma senior business systems analyst for SCORE.
(01:00):
Okay, and you've been doing thatfor quite some time, I know,
right. I started as a volunteerand then within four months it's been fourteen
years. Wow. Well, Icould tell you that SCORE is a tremendous
resource for inventors and entrepreneurs. Whydon't you quickly tell us what you do
there. I help them with policyand procedure. Look at all their numbers,
(01:22):
and since I have experienced running achapter here in Syracuse, I've got
a little more insight than most peoplethere. Well, and what is Score
actually Score provides has ten thousand volunteersall across the country that provides free I
say free mentorship in running a business. When I say free, it's free
(01:45):
of costs. But it's going tocost you, really your time and energy.
You have to do the work.We'll give you guidance. Got it.
So, Michael, tell us aboutyourself and why you invented this pen
needle and cleansing swab combo. Whatwas the problem that you had, Brian,
(02:06):
As they say, you know,things happen. You know, nature
is really the driver of all this. So I at the time was in
construction and became diabetic and never ina clean place to shoot myself. The
six or seven times I had toshoot myself. They made it easy,
(02:27):
you know. It took away thesyringe and gave me a pen, which
was terrific, and a pen needle. But then I still had to carry
on top of those two things,I had to carry alcohol swabs as well,
and it was never a clean,easy place to give myself the insulin
shots. It just occurred to methat it'd be so much nicer to only
carry the pen and the needle soagain the mother of invention. You know,
(02:54):
needs are in the mother invention.I decided that it would be really
helpful if the alcohol swab was actuallypart of the label of the pen needle,
the needle itself, so you didn'thave to carry an extra thing,
you know, an extra alcohol swab, which would open up in your pocket
(03:14):
and make a mess, and itwouldn't get all dried out. It was
just sealed by being within the penneedle itself. Did you find that you
weren't the only person that had thiskind of problem where let's say you were
out and about, whether you werein your construction site or you're out and
about and all of a sudden youneed to do your procedure and you're without
(03:37):
a swab to clean, and thenmost people will just do it without cleaning,
right absolutely. And you know,it's funny that you mentioned it part
of my homework, and all thiswas being out and about, happened to
see someone shoot without cleaning. Igo over and introduce myself and ask them
(03:58):
why, you know, what wouldmake them use the alcohol swab? And
one guy actually had it the swabright there, but he said, ah,
I never tear it open. Ifthat swab was inside the label where
you pull the label off and it'sin your hand already. Would you use
it? Absolutely, he said tome. So that was the some of
my you know, it happened timeand time again as I was researching to
(04:20):
see does this have value? Youknow, Michael me personally, I have
an invention also that it's something thatyou use every day. But what I
did was add another feature to itto make people's lives easier. And pretty
much for the same price is whatpeople pay for the first thing, you're
(04:40):
getting a little bit more for thesecond thing, and or maybe a lot
more. And especially with your situation, the convenience it, it's almost like
a win win. So you havea product and a concept that you came
up with. So let's put upthis video. Is that okay, Michael,
let's put a video to show theaudio. Absolutely. Michael Gilman here
(05:03):
introducing you to a new innovative patent. Just scan this QR code introducing Patent
US eleven two, five three,six eight seven B two by Michael Gilman,
Revolutionizing safety and convenience for pen needleusers. Ever thought twice about injecting
(05:24):
in a public place, Concerned aboutcleanliness, We get it. Public places
aren't always sterile, and sometimes youforget your cleaning supplies. Here's the game
changer, A cleansing swab incorporated rightwith the needle. Just peel clean and
inject. It's that simple. Nomore risks, no more forgetting interested in
(05:46):
this patent or have questions. Reachout to Michael Gilman Directly scan the QR
code to view the full patent details, safety and convenience all in one.
Wow. So what you did wasactually put the swab into the top of
(06:10):
the pen needle and now you kindof just peel it off to be able
to have that kind of effect ofjust having that combo. When you need
the pen needle, you have it, and then the swab is right attached.
So tell us, tell us alittle bit more, Michael. So
it was as I did my researchand realized that it was probably something that
(06:32):
was worth going after. I decidedit was you know, let's time,
let's let's go ahead and go aftera patent for it. And when I
reached out to a couple of differentattorneys, you know, there was a
process involved. I didn't have anydrawings at that point. I was fortunate
that the guy that was paired withme was a good artist and was able
(06:57):
to take my conception and drawn out. And it took a very long time.
The process was very, very long. We started in two thousand and
eight and it wasn't until twenty twentytwo that it was finally completely approved.
It was very easy to get theprovisional, but I went right from provisional
(07:21):
immediately without waiting to a published patent, fully published bract. So the label
has the alcohol swab right on it, attached to it, and it gets
sealed with another label exactly the samesize right over it so that harmatically seals
it so it can't dry out.And then all that gets attached to the
(07:46):
actual what they call the canula,the fixture of the pen needle itself.
So you see how it looks withthe pen needle on the left there and
the label. We pull the labeloff, the alcohol swab is right there,
You clean, do the cleaning,you install the needle on the end
of the pen, and you're allsetting ready to shoot, no fuss,
(08:09):
no mut Wow. So, Michael, when you first came up with the
idea, what was that moment likewhen you said, you know what,
I'm tired of carrying around or Ijust forgot my swab. I'm in a
dirty environment. I want to beable to do the right thing and take
care of myself and clean before Ihave to stick myself with the pen needle.
(08:33):
What was that moment like when youcame up with the idea? Leading
up to it was lots of frustration. I didn't want to get an infection.
Yeah. Oh, and it wasnever in places that were really anywhere
clean at all, and so itwas very you know, I was very
frustrating to have to keep track ofall that stuff. And so when I
(08:54):
came up with the idea and startedjust talking to some people about it,
there was excitement and then you know, all that just led into me being
excited about, you know, takingto the next level. How far can
I go with it? When youwere talking about being excited and other people
being excited about it, did yougo to other diabetics and ask them this
(09:16):
question or just people around you?What was kind of that who shared with
you that experience? It was like, I say, boots on the ground.
I was in a restaurant, seesomeone shoot, go right over and
introduce myself, and I asked themI noticed you gave yourself some insulin,
but you didn't clean you know,It's like yeah, and they actually some
(09:39):
of them showed me, well,we have the OSCO operator here, but
it's a pain in the neck.So I showed him my concept and they're
like, well, if it wasalready in my fingers already, why would
I not do it? Of courseI'd do it. If it's already in
my fingers. I don't have tounwrap anything else or carry something else,
don't need to carry a big bagwith all this stuff. He thought it
(10:00):
was you know, the folks thatI ran into thought it was an excellent,
excellent idea. Now, after yourealized that you had something and you
were onto something here this idea.You mentioned that you went to file a
provisional patent application, so that givesyou the right for one year to say
that your patent pending while you're kindof exploring the market, or before you
(10:22):
file the non provisional patent application.But let's just go back for a second,
Michael, was that the first thingyou did immediately go through getting a
patent or did you take a swab? Did you try to figure out how
it was going to fit under thatPeel tell us about that experience of just
kind of like taking it out ofyour head and making it into some sort
(10:45):
of reality, even if it wasa prototype. Yeah. So really,
when I was just still conceptualizing itand talking two folks, yeah, I
didn't want to start the provision thepatent process unless I had the money.
So I checked, you know,touch base with several different patent attorneys just
(11:05):
to get an idea what's it goingto cost me? And then honestly,
I put it. I put itaside for a while until I had the
money set aside. Once I hadthe money set aside, then I reached
out and I started the conversation.And the first question they asked me,
of course, once I sat downwith the with the guy that was helping
me with it, was so,how is this going to work? And
(11:26):
we actually needed to come up withtwo or three different ways of doing it
to make sure that we had enoughclaims so that nobody else would have something
similar to it. And uh sothat that was the process, and that's
uh, you know, through histhis that person's drawings, different types of
drawings, and and we tried differentways, and we had lots and lots
(11:50):
of discussions about how it would workand how would we keep it dry so,
you know, so it wouldn't I'msorry, so it wouldn't dry out
when it was packed. And sowe did a lot of that type of
checking and going back and forth beforewe decided, okay, we have enough
information to apply for the provisional pattern. Well, most of the people that
(12:11):
are patent attorneys or agents have somesort of engineering background. Not all of
them do, but for the mostpart, some do. Do you feel
like your patent attorney or agent thatyou went to you mentioned they kind of
helped you to figure out how youwere going to be able to protect it,
but also how it worked. Didyou kind of bring it to the
(12:31):
table of how it worked. Ibrought to the table how it worked.
And then when they said, hey, we need to have a couple other
options to do it, well,that took some time for me to ferret
out to play with it in myhead. Tried different drawings and different ways
to attach a swab of sort thatwas impregnated with a cleansing solution like alcohol,
(12:58):
and to keep it so it doesn'tdraw out. That was important.
It couldn't speak into the needle andit couldn't dry out either, So that
was a that was a chore.He was not an engineer, but he
was you know, he certainly knewhis stuff about the patents and about the
claims, and we did all kindsof searching in different ways of comparing different
(13:20):
things to make sure that we wereclean. Well, here you are,
Michael, you're a diabetic, andall of a sudden, you find a
better way to be able to gothrough the steps that you need to to
actually uh do what you have todo with your pen needle. And all
of a sudden, now you decidedthat you're going to be an inventor,
or you didn't. You didn't expectto be an inventor. You're going about
(13:43):
your day and now all of asudden you have this idea, and now
you're looking into the way that thepen needles are, the way that the
moisture of wipes. How is itgoing to stay underneath and stay dry wet
instead of dry? What was wasit just easy for you to do or
(14:05):
what kind of hurdles did you haveto get through just to get it to
that point to be able to knowthat you have something. Well, I'm
a technical guy to begin with,and probably had several ideas over the years,
different types of ideas. Never tookthe step to go and patent it,
and of course, you know,time passes and other people came up
(14:28):
with the same idea. So thisone here as soon as I knew what
it was going to cost me.You know, the reality was, I
worked very hard to get the moneyset aside so that I didn't have to
cost me anything they have to strugglefor it, didn't have to make payments
on it, and it made itgo through so much better, and I
could do it much faster, eventhough it took a forever time to make
(14:50):
it happen. Now you could havegone and continue without going through and filing
for a patent, even though youwere limited on funds. You decided that
you needed some sort of intellectual propertyprotection. Tell us why, you know,
Brian, it was such a simpleidea. You start talking about it,
(15:13):
someone else is going to do it. You know. It's those really,
you know, they keep it simple, stupid. You know the kiss
concept. It's so easy, itmakes so much sense. Why wouldn't they
be doing that in the first place. So it's better off for you to
have some sort of protection. Thisway, you might have some options.
So perhaps you might want to manufactureit and start your own business and be
(15:37):
able to sell the pen needles withthe combination involved. But maybe you don't
necessarily want to go into business foryourself that way, So the other option
might be that you may want tolicense it to earn royalties. So when
you decided to start working on thisinvention and you filed for the patent,
(15:58):
what was the path that you wereexpecting to go through. My concept was
always to license it out. I'ma small guy. I'm not going to
build a manufacturing plant. The youknow, the needle margins are not huge
when you're looking at when you're asmall guy buying equipment to handle that stuff,
(16:22):
and it's you know, it's gotto be sterile, all these different
things. It made no sense forme to to say, oh, let
me go manufacture it, and lotsof folks once I got it, pushed
very hard for me to go intomanufacturing. It makes most sense. This
is a simplistic thing. The processesare already out there. It doesn't change
(16:42):
any manufacturing piece. It just putsa different label on which is the same
size. So it made much moresense to try and license it out.
So for you, licensing that meansthat you're going to one of the major
players. Mostly you probably want togo to one of them that manufacture pen
(17:04):
needles and distribute pen needles, andyou would look to add your pen needle
and cleansing swab combo to their productline and they would manufacture it, they
would distribute it, and every timeone of them sells, you would earn
a royalty from it. That's thegoal. Okay, So here you are.
(17:27):
You went through the iterations of gettingit, where you had some sort
of prototype, you went to patentit or at least file for the patent,
and what did you do after that? Michael, It was a long
road. We ended up with apatent examiner who immediately got when she once
(17:52):
she got assigned my case went onvacation, and of course we were in
the pandemic, so she never cameback and it took almost eight months for
us to call, you know,finally get a hold of the office and
say what's going on. So theyassigned me to a new examiner who was
actually very new, and oh,every step of the way he stopped us.
(18:15):
So it was a very long interestingprocess. In fact, on your
show when you had the patent peoplecome in it talked about a program.
We kind of did the same thingwithout using the program. The attorney that
I was working with had a process. We ended up with a supervisor who
helped make everything happen. When youfiled, you did the non you did
(18:37):
the provisional. Then before the yearyou converted it to the non provisional.
While you were waiting correct, immediado anything or did you wait until the
patent was actually issued? Well?What we One of the things that came
out of the delays was we neededto add a couple more claims. So
(19:00):
I came up with two other waysto install, if you will, the
the swab, the alcohol swab,and you know, the cleansing material in
different areas of that needle. Initiallyit was very simplistic. So as we
went through these iterations, uh toanswer the the examiners, you know,
(19:22):
concerns. You know that we builtit along the way. Okay, so
you kept going. You figured outwhat you can do, what you can't
do, adding some more, whatdo you think are the main features like
for us as consumers, if wewere going to use something like this,
it looks you're right, it lookskind of simple. But what do you
(19:42):
what is the claim? What isthe claim to fame for this invention,
this patent that makes it unique thatyou could call your own, Michael,
it's you know, first off,you know, convenience, convenience, convenience,
But more importantly, ask yourself question, when you go to the doctor,
to the hospital, or any medicalperson and they go to give you
(20:07):
a shot, what's the very firstthing they do? No matter what,
they clean the skin, they cleanthe air. There's no question. You
know, as much as you can, you can say, oh, people
give shots all the time without cleaningit. You know what, there's a
reason the hospitals and all the medicalprofessionals always always clean it. It's important.
Why would you chance getting yourself aninfection? So this is just it's
(20:32):
convenience and it makes you want todo it because it's right there in your
hand. So, Michael, whathave you done so far? Now?
So you have the prototype, youhave the patent, you're on this show.
What have you done so far?Because at this point it's still a
concept. It's still a prototype,a fully issued utility patent. You have
(20:57):
assets? Are yours? So whathave you done so far to try to
commercialize this? Reached out to literallyhundreds of folks to you know, just
trying to put it out there,trying to share the concept, share the
patent, you know, trying todrum up interest. It's it's a long
(21:19):
road of drumming, beating my ownmy own drums. And you know,
we we we researched who the bigguys were and we went right after them,
and they immediately ignored us. Soit's a it's a process, and
and you can't just simply give up. It's a process. You've got to
(21:41):
have some stamina to get through this. You know, it is a lot
of work, but I'm sure there'slight at the end of the tunnel somewhere.
In the medical device world, mostof the time they require an issued
patent, which you have, andthey either have some sort of innovation area
(22:03):
or they have some kind of submissionfor innovation area, and you've gone through
that. You're looking to get oneof the major players to be able to
pick this up, because to beable to add an extra feature of function
with their machinery probably won't take muchfor them. It is a new process
(22:25):
that they have to go through.But look at the convenience that they can
have. It makes what you havecan give a pen needle manufacturer a competitive
advantage in the market, and thatreally is what's going to make a difference
between what's out there and yours.Yours, you know, Brian, there's
(22:45):
no doubt, you know. Thesimplistic piece of the design, it's the
label. So the label is configuredwhere it's got two labels, one on
top of the other and in betweenit's sandwich. You is that swab when
they go ahead and add it tothe manufacturing piece, it's just the label.
(23:07):
It's not any different. The machinethat they've used to put that one
label on right now will work thesame way with the two labels that are
stuck together and sealed. So there'syou know, to put this into someone's
process is not a big deal.It's not a big lift. The cost
(23:29):
is the extra label and the andthe swab. And on the right of
that in the center you see thelabel taking apart where one side of the
label actually has the alcohol swab rightattached to it, and all that you
know, what it leaves is theis the needle itself. The canula they
(23:52):
call it, which screws onto thepen and you pull that cover off in
and exposes a needle. So whileyou pull that, you've got the all
call swab in your hand. Youclean the site where you're going to shoot,
you put the needle on, andyou shoot. It's all by that
time, it's all dry, andit's simple, simple, convenient as could
(24:14):
be. Michael. There are peoplein our audience that have an idea in
their head. Maybe they had anidea at one point and then ten years
later they see it out there andthey say, I would have, could
have, should have done it.But you stop and you are moving forward
with your idea. You're looking forthat potential partner, manufacturing partner with distribution,
(24:37):
one of the players that are inthe pen needle industry. But just
going through your journey and being aninventor and being involved at score with other
business owners, and just kind ofgoing through in that mindset. For the
people that are watching or listening,what are some words of wisdom and advice
that you can give when somebody hasan idea to keep their invention moving forward.
(24:59):
Michael, I can tell you nevergive up. It is such a
fun ride, a great journey togo through. Yeah, there's some difficult
times. Every journey has its difficultpieces, but honestly it's well worth it.
No one was more excited than mewhen I got the provisional, and
(25:21):
then again no one was more excitedto me when I got the actual non
provisional. So just a great ride, h you know, and I certainly
you know folks at SCORE will helpwith some of this stuff. Certainly all
about business from Score. But don'tgive up, keep on going, keep
on going. That's a great lesson. So Michael, you're open to licensing
(25:47):
this invention, this intellectual property ofa patent to earn royalties. Your invention
is a pen needle and cleansing swabcombo is a little bit more of a
fancier term on the patent, whichis more about the assembly of having the
pen needle the cleansing swab together assembled. So how do we get in touch
(26:08):
with you? Michael? If thereis somebody out there that has a connection
with some of the major players inthe pen needle industry, how can they
get in touch with you? Bestway is email and you send it to
m J at m J G IL M A N dot com. That's
(26:32):
my email, it's my name.It's easy to do. What are some
of the major players in the industry, Michael. The ones that you use
are the ones that you know ofthat that you're looking to get as a
partner. BD is one of them. They're they're probably the largest one out
there. The other ones are allunder no name. I think there's one
(26:56):
other one. Lily is another one, but the rest of them are all
no name, which is great.They you know, I should be able
to get my foot in the door, but it's very difficult to get our
foot in the door. We keeptrying. Good well, Michael. We
wish you all the best. Youhave a solution for the people out there
(27:18):
to keep them clean before they haveto go through the process of using their
pen needle. So congratulations on gettingit to this point and we're looking forward
to hearing much success and other peopleor that will use it for the same
reason that you came up with itfor yourself and for other people. Hopefully
we'll be able to use it soon. So thank you, Michael. We
(27:41):
wish you all the best. We'llsee you against SI. Thank you,
thank you, thanks again. Okay, that was Michael Gilman Uh. He
has the pen, needle and cleansingswab combo. If you'd like to be
a guest on the Got Invention Show, you can go to gottenventionshow dot com.
Until then, keep making your bigideas happen, keep moving forward.
(28:03):
We'll see you again soon
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