September 10, 2024 • 26 mins
In this episode, host Brian Fried interviews Mike Miranda, a New York-based inventor and former educator, who has created "Get Smart," a revolutionary crossword card game. Mike shares his journey from conceptualizing the game with simple index cards to developing a nearly finished prototype. Discover how "Get Smart" transforms traditional word games into powerful educational tools, teaching vocabulary across a wide range of subjects. Mike also discusses the challenges of patenting and licensing his invention. If you love games like Scrabble and want to see innovation in action, don’t miss this episode!
Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/e9_RmGpeTTM
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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
Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/e9_RmGpeTTM
--------------------------------------------
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
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Welcome to the Got Invention Show. I'm your host Brian Freed,
and our guest today is Mike Miranda. He is an
inventor and Mike, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Thank you, Brian, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Mike, you're a pretty interesting guy. I had a chance
to get to know you a little bit before. Why
don't you tell us who you are and where you're from?
To start?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, Mike Miranda born, raised, educated in New York City,
still live here in New York City, Brooklyn. In particular,
in my past, I was an educator. I'm currently a
new product developer.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
And you came up with a game called Get Smart,
the crossword card game, which we're going to get to
in a few moments. But Mike, as a product developer
and somebody that's creative, innovative, you've been doing this for
a long time. What do you think it is that
kind of sparks that interest in coming up with a
new idea?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
How do I come up with it?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I just pop into my head all the time, or
I'm if I'm doing something or using a product, or
the situation stimulates an idea. It triggers an idea in
my head.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
So here you are. We mentioned about Get Smart, the
crossword card game. Why don't you tell us what kind
of before this idea came to life, when you first
came up with the idea, how did that happen?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well? Number one, I enjoyed playing the board game Scrabble,
and as an educator, I saw that, I reckon Scrabble
is tolerated in schools, but it's never used as a
teaching tool, and so I set out to convert Scrabble
into a teaching tool. During the process, I learned that
(02:04):
this was much more than the game. You know, it
was actually a teaching tool which can teach the vocabulary
of any subject, academic or not.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Okay, So you had this thought of being able to
advance the Scrabble type of opportunity for kids and for
adults and anybody who loves playing scrabble. So when this
thought and idea came to your mind, what did you do? First?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I made a very rough with the index cars. I
made a rough prototype, a really rough prototype, just to see,
if you know, if it worked.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
And sometimes that's the easiest way. I mean, you came
up with something that, to start with, is easy to
be able to make a prototype right, you could take
index cards like you're saying, and be able. So what
did you end up doing with these index cars? You're
visualizing the way that scrabble is played, in the way
that this game is going to be played.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yes, yes, I played the game, but as I said
during the process, I sort of this is really a
good teaching. It's it's it's a game, but it's really
a good teaching too. It doesn't have to they said,
it doesn't have to be an academic subject.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Okay, let's take a look and see the game in action,
so we can get an understanding of what gets smart.
If you like scrabble or crossword puzzles, you get smartd
the new crossword game.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
The more you play, the smarter you get.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
You can teach the vocabulary of any subject like for world, music, basketball, chemistry,
the Civil War, modern art, and many others.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Get smart.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
The more you.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Play, the smarter you get. Players are dealt seven cards
to win the game. Players make high scoring words in
a crossword manner like scrabble. Each card has a letter
and numerical point value on it. They're playing get smart Baseball,
(04:17):
having fun and learning the language of baseball. First player
makes the word balk and replenishes cards in hand from deck.
Second player adds the word sinker at the k in balk.
There can only be two complete words on the board
at a time. Players can pick up or lay down
(04:40):
letters in one direction only up and down or left
to right like scrabble. Sweep is replaced with fungo using
the N in sinker bulk, sinker, sweep, Fungo and many
more words are in the Get Smart Baseball dictionary. Included
in the game, we're in the language of chemistry, law, tennis, soccer, art, history,
(05:08):
and many more. With Get Smart, a crossword card game.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
The more you play Get Smart, the smarter you get.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That's great. So let's let's talk about it, Mike, very interesting.
So you're making what why don't you explain it? Why
don't you tell us your thoughts of and your way
of explaining your game to somebody.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
The elevator pitch.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Let's hear it?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, it can really, it can teach any subject. So
whether it's in school, any grade, kindergarten right through college.
But even as I show any sport, and I did
a video there with with baseball, but any sport, because
(05:56):
every subject, whatever it is, whether it's legal not for profit.
Any business. They have specific words that A particular to
that business or industry, and U which which is basically
the vocabulary of that business or industry, and so I
(06:18):
as you see in the video, it can teach the
language of any any subject. Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
So Mike, you had this idea right away, you took
and you made a prototype out of index cards. And
what did you do next? How did you kind of
go through the steps in the process.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
You know, if I proved that worked, played with some people,
et cetera, that I made the finished prototype to what
you saw in the in the in the video, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Okay, so you're still it. You're still a prototype stage.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I have a patent pending and I'm currently seeking a
licensee to license to and produce the product.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Okay. So Mike, as you were developing your prototype, there
were some things in iterations that you had to go
through to get to the point of where you are
with almost a finished prototype. Like you're saying, so you
made your concept on index cards. What did you do
after that to keep the idea moving forward?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well, as I said, I died, I started making the
with the finished prototype. I also did some research on
You can go into the Patent office web page what's
website and look at prior art and see, you know,
what exists. You can also visit department stores that sell
(07:43):
a product similar, if not the exact kind of product,
like a playing card. So you do some basic market
research to see if it's worth spending time on developing
the idea.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Okay, and you felt and based on your research, you
felt like it was a good opportunity absolutely okay. And
and when people look at scrabble and then they look
at your game, what's the kind of when you were
saying your elevator pitch before, what exactly is it that
you feel is going to is going to make the
(08:16):
audience really want your game.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
If they want, you know, if they work in a
in a particular business, if they're an aspiring lawyer and
an aspiring whatever, uh, the buyer of this game and
play it with people. And it's been proven academically, it's
improven that if if you learn the vocabulary of a
(08:43):
subject before you actually start learning the content of the subject,
when you do start learning the content, it will you
will learn it quicker and it will be absorbed more
deeply into your psyche.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Okay, let's take a look at one more video.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Here.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
You have a couple of grades.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
This card game, Gets Smart is helping me learn the
vocabulary of heredity. It is teaching me how to spell
them and the definitions Eli's are the two different types
of gene of a gene, which are dominant and recessive.
Speaker 6 (09:21):
If you really want to nail your academic subjects, get
the word game Get Smart. It's dedicated dictionary, so learn
the vocabulary of any subject, any grade.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Get Smart is available in any subject, any grade.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
So, Mike, you've been at this for a while. You
have the cards at prototype stage, so it looks like
there were nice graphics and the colors and the way
that you wanted to lay it out. Being an art director,
how did that kind of influence the way that you
are having your card game? Look?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Well, it saved me money because if I if I couldn't,
if I couldn't do that myself, I would have the
highest talent to do it. So I was able to
do it myself.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Okay. And the name gets Smart the crossword card game.
So coming up with a name, what kind of experience
was that? Did you have fun coming up with the
name did you kind of go through a few different
thoughts of what it should be?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Actually it was. It was pretty quick. It was like
a don't breaker it just it makes sense. But you
play the game and you get smart. It's that simple
because if you know, if you don't know anything about law,
you play this game, you're going to learn a lot
about law, at least the vocabulary of law.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, when you're working on this game and you're kind
of presenting it, whether it's for a licensing deal or
manufacturing it your yourself, which I know you prefer not to,
but there are different age groups of kids adults. When
you're thinking about who it is that you're going to
(11:04):
pitch it to which audience, how do you come up
with which depending on I guess the the difficulty level
of it, or is there just kind of putting it
out there, like what what's your target audience? And how
did you know that it's the kids first because you
showed a couple of kids videos? But is it also
(11:26):
for adults?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Absolutely? I think I mentioned that it goes right through college.
Just think about if you're a medical student, right, you
have to an awful lot of words new words to you, right,
and we have a game or we can't create a
game specific to whatever whatever division of whatever, whatever kind
(11:55):
of medicine you're going to go into, whether it's you know,
male female, uh, pediatrics, it's geriatrics, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Okay, So just between the level and between the different categories.
So how many different categories do you think you've come
up with at this point?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Well, on this particular product, it's unique in that it's
not limited to one field. For instance, this can be
a potential licensees of this product would be education publishers,
for instance, but or playing card publishers or dictionary people. Uh,
those are three different industries that But but speaking in education,
(12:42):
as I mentioned, the product itself is applicable to any
age group, So I could picture to any any I
got you to a lower grade school of pre kindergarten, college,
you know, et cetera. But it's other product that we
(13:03):
have a video. It's also an education product and specifically
geared toward the student who's just beginning to learn learn
how to read and the first steps of acquiring literacy,
and most of most of us, most of that audience
would be young kids. But it's also going to be
(13:25):
employed by adult learners of English language.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
When you formulated this idea and you kind of laid
it out on the index cards, you mentioned that your
patent pending. You went on, you took a look and
you kind of got yourself educated yourself to a point
of protecting the idea. But how did you know what
to do at that point? You came up with this idea,
you wanted to protect it. So how did you end
(13:52):
up preparing and setting yourself up for intellectual property protection?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Well? I had some brief experience, you know, with the
patent I actually received, and and since that time, uh,
the Patent office has come up with what what do
they call it? Uh, it's a provisional patent application and
by and by and it's it's inexpensive. I mean it's
(14:20):
you don't have to, you know, spend a month's salary
getting a provisional patent application. Uh. And what the key
thing about it is that once you file that, uh,
you you get patent pending status, so you you have
some legal protection you can show with the people and
(14:40):
companies and you know, they see it's patent pending. So
if they don't want to get involved with a law
a law case, Uh, you know they'll respect it.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
So you filed a provisional patent application that gives you
the right for one year to say you're patent pending
while you're exploring thepportunities of possibly trying to license it
like you are, and within that year you're going to
have to file a non provisional patent application and that's
the full patent with the claims, and it's otherwise known
(15:14):
as the utility patent. So do you feel like this
is a utility type of application, type of game? Is
it something also that you consider copywriting with the instructions?
Do you have instructions with it as well?
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yes, I do. I have not copyrighted any of the
instructions or the many different ways that the deck can
be used to play. I'm secure with the I feel
comfortable with the security that the provisional patent application gives me.
And if I get a real bite, you know that
I'll apply for the copyright and if it looks like
(15:54):
it's going to go, it's going to go become a deal,
and then of course I'll invest in and maybe even
try to get the prospective licensee to foot the bill
to find out the the lawyer's bill to file the.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Patent, Mike, As you evolved your idea into the index cards,
into kind of the way that it should look and
be designed, I'm sure one of the fun parts that
you had was actually to have your audience test it
and get some feedback from it. What was that like?
(16:32):
Because you wanted to test it and see how people
responded to it?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Okay, everybody that played the game, both young and old,
college educated or not, enjoyed playing the game and preferred
the playing card version as opposed to the board game
version of Scrabble.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Okay, And what was that like? How did you set
up kind of a test market? How did you survey it?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
See when he was when he was words like test
market and survey It sounds very sophisticated. You know, just
gather with some people. It started with family, started with
my wife, and then with the other family. I have
adult children, I have sister and friends. I played the
game with those people.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Mike, you've worked on this invention, get Smart the crossword
card game. How long have you been working on this
idea more.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Than I'd like to say, Yeah, because it's been a
learning experience for me. Uh, you know, I started out
knowing nothing really, and I got to the point now
where I know something where I was able to reach
out to somewhere like you to help promote me and
(17:48):
my products.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So, Mike, besides this idea, this product that hopefully you're
going to license at some point, tell us about your
self as an inventor. You you've kind of always had
this creative spark. You're an art director, you're an educator.
(18:10):
What is it that you feel has kind of driven
you towards being a product developer? Well?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
My, first of all, I've got that. I think it's
in my gene because I've had relatives that were creative
or somebody I passed away that were all creative. All right.
Uh but and then I said, growing up left handed, Uh,
you know, you you're challenge all the time to resolve
(18:37):
a situation so that it works for you. But but
all my life experiences have brought me to the point
where this is what I want to do because I'm
happiest when i'm creating, you know. So that's this is
my form of gambling, you could say, because I spent
(18:59):
a lot of time and not as little money as
I as I can. But you spend money and uh,
but I'm gambling out myself and my ideas.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
What about your first patent? You mentioned that you have
an issued patent at this point.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yes, it was for and in fact I'm revisiting it.
The patent is is long expired. I got as many
extensions on it as I could, so a lot of
time passed that I really didn't pay much attention to it,
and I felt helpless because there, you know, people like
you and the service that you offer were not in
(19:37):
existence at the time that I got that patent.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
What was the patent on, Mike, Oh.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
A portable toothpost that looks like and fountains like and
functions like a fountain pen. You can literally brush anywhere anytime,
even without water, because it works with a a mouth wash.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And you worked on that invention, you ended up patenting it.
Did you make a prototype? Did it go anywhere? What?
What was that journey?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Like a non functioning prototype? You know, it looks like
but doesn't early work. And when I got to the
point where I was dealing with the lawyer, he said,
we need we need to illustrate the mechanics of it.
So through the lawyer, I hired a mechanical illustrated that
that I actually showed how it worked, how it functions,
(20:34):
line drawings. Yeah, I still have them.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
So, Mike, in order for you to license Get Smart
the Crossword card game, what is your ambition? What are
your next steps? How are other companies going to know
that your card game exists and it's available for licensing. Well,
you're saying that you're doing a Google search on card games,
(20:58):
or how can you find let's say, on LinkedIn you're
finding or you can go into retail stores right and
you look at so you mentioned you went to Hasbro
but you didn't feel comfortable with them because maybe it's
too close. But maybe you go to other card companies, Yes, yes,
that are similar or maybe can align with yours, And
(21:21):
those are the type of companies that you're going to
reach out to to try to get a licensing deal.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Rightly, and that the cheapest and the easiest way is
to get an idea of what companies are in the
market is to go to where they're selling similar kind
of products. But I have in the past and will
continue to do so, I've hired a researcher. It sounds to.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Me, Mike like you hired a freelancer on fiver. Yes,
and you looked up their credentials and you chose somebody
to do some research for you.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Exactly. Great. But playing are some of the things that
I've learned now, right, you know, I said I started
out knowing nothing. Things like that I've learned the hard way.
I had no teacher. You have to learn about yourself.
But companies like like you, like you know what you're doing.
You can learn an awful lot from people like you.
(22:20):
And it's and the exposure you get too.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
It's very nice to have like yourself involved in a
community and get involved with different activities that are going
on because there's people just like you in these type
of situations that have come up with an idea and
looking for the next steps to commercialize it, whether it's
through licensing so you can earn royalties from it and
(22:44):
you can have a company manufactured distribute and you earn
those royalties, or you know, at the same time, you
came up with something that it doesn't take much to
manufacture because it's printed cards. But then you have thousand
units and your five thousand units in your garage. Now,
what how are you going to sell them? So many
(23:05):
of the companies that you were mentioning, like Hasbro or
another type of card company, a toy game company, they
already have manufacturing capability and distribution. So you're looking to
add your product to their product line for you to
earn royalties. That's your number one objective.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yes, I don't want to get involved with manufacturing and
marketing product. Of course, it's not where my interests.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Lie understood, Mike, you've been at this for a while.
There are inventors that are just starting off. They just
came up with an idea in their head and they're
watching or listening today, or maybe they're somewhere along the
way just like you, or maybe they have a finished
product and they're interested in they're selling and they're interested
(23:52):
in hearing your story today, Mike. But everybody has some
kind of thought or lesson that they've learned along the way.
Share us some words of wisdom that we can offer
to the people that are in our audience.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Well, one thing that goes through my mind a lot
is uh, the saying uh ah. Winners never quit and
quitters never win. Because I say I say that because
uh and go also as a saying about you know,
a salesman, one of the first things a salesman learns
(24:29):
is that you're going to get ten or fifty or
one hundred no's before you get one yes. And so
there's a lot of frustration in just getting to the
right people, uh and talking to them. You know, a
real potential licensee you're gonna allow and you know they've
(24:50):
got gatekeepers, all kinds of frustrations involved to get the
product to market. But you know, and you've got to
be pairs, you really do. Otherwise you it's so easy
to lose hope or to lose you know, to lose
the motivation.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Got to keep moving forward, right Mike, exactly, absolutely, And
you as a product developer, you're continuing to come up
with new ideas all the time. So you just keep
your creativity going as an art director, as an inventor,
as a product developer. We wish you all the best, Mike.
Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Mike.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
We'll keep in touch and we're going to find out
what kind of activity is happening with you with the
Get Smart the crossword card game. Hopefully you'll have a
licensee soon and we can buy your game, whether it's
in the stores or it's for educational purposes. Hopefully you
(25:53):
can get the distribution that you're looking for and earn royalties.
Thank you so much, Mike, thank you, thank you. Okay,
so that wraps up our Got Invention Show with Mike
Miranda Get Smart the Crossword card Game. And if you
have an invention, or you're along the way where let's
(26:15):
say you just came up with this idea, or maybe
you're at the point where you're looking to license or
manufacture or you have a finished product, get in touch
with us and share your story and journey with us
on the Got Invention Show. We will see you again
very soon with another episode. Thank you so much, and
keep moving your ideas forward.
Welcome to the Got Invention Show. I'm your host Brian Freed,
and our guest today is Mike Miranda. He is an
inventor and Mike, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Thank you, Brian, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Mike, you're a pretty interesting guy. I had a chance
to get to know you a little bit before. Why
don't you tell us who you are and where you're from?
To start?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, Mike Miranda born, raised, educated in New York City,
still live here in New York City, Brooklyn. In particular,
in my past, I was an educator. I'm currently a
new product developer.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
And you came up with a game called Get Smart,
the crossword card game, which we're going to get to
in a few moments. But Mike, as a product developer
and somebody that's creative, innovative, you've been doing this for
a long time. What do you think it is that
kind of sparks that interest in coming up with a
new idea?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
How do I come up with it?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I just pop into my head all the time, or
I'm if I'm doing something or using a product, or
the situation stimulates an idea. It triggers an idea in
my head.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
So here you are. We mentioned about Get Smart, the
crossword card game. Why don't you tell us what kind
of before this idea came to life, when you first
came up with the idea, how did that happen?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well? Number one, I enjoyed playing the board game Scrabble,
and as an educator, I saw that, I reckon Scrabble
is tolerated in schools, but it's never used as a
teaching tool, and so I set out to convert Scrabble
into a teaching tool. During the process, I learned that
(02:04):
this was much more than the game. You know, it
was actually a teaching tool which can teach the vocabulary
of any subject, academic or not.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Okay, So you had this thought of being able to
advance the Scrabble type of opportunity for kids and for
adults and anybody who loves playing scrabble. So when this
thought and idea came to your mind, what did you do? First?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I made a very rough with the index cars. I
made a rough prototype, a really rough prototype, just to see,
if you know, if it worked.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
And sometimes that's the easiest way. I mean, you came
up with something that, to start with, is easy to
be able to make a prototype right, you could take
index cards like you're saying, and be able. So what
did you end up doing with these index cars? You're
visualizing the way that scrabble is played, in the way
that this game is going to be played.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yes, yes, I played the game, but as I said
during the process, I sort of this is really a
good teaching. It's it's it's a game, but it's really
a good teaching too. It doesn't have to they said,
it doesn't have to be an academic subject.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Okay, let's take a look and see the game in action,
so we can get an understanding of what gets smart.
If you like scrabble or crossword puzzles, you get smartd
the new crossword game.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
The more you play, the smarter you get.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
You can teach the vocabulary of any subject like for world, music, basketball, chemistry,
the Civil War, modern art, and many others.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Get smart.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
The more you.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Play, the smarter you get. Players are dealt seven cards
to win the game. Players make high scoring words in
a crossword manner like scrabble. Each card has a letter
and numerical point value on it. They're playing get smart Baseball,
(04:17):
having fun and learning the language of baseball. First player
makes the word balk and replenishes cards in hand from deck.
Second player adds the word sinker at the k in balk.
There can only be two complete words on the board
at a time. Players can pick up or lay down
(04:40):
letters in one direction only up and down or left
to right like scrabble. Sweep is replaced with fungo using
the N in sinker bulk, sinker, sweep, Fungo and many
more words are in the Get Smart Baseball dictionary. Included
in the game, we're in the language of chemistry, law, tennis, soccer, art, history,
(05:08):
and many more. With Get Smart, a crossword card game.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
The more you play Get Smart, the smarter you get.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That's great. So let's let's talk about it, Mike, very interesting.
So you're making what why don't you explain it? Why
don't you tell us your thoughts of and your way
of explaining your game to somebody.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
The elevator pitch.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Let's hear it?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, it can really, it can teach any subject. So
whether it's in school, any grade, kindergarten right through college.
But even as I show any sport, and I did
a video there with with baseball, but any sport, because
(05:56):
every subject, whatever it is, whether it's legal not for profit.
Any business. They have specific words that A particular to
that business or industry, and U which which is basically
the vocabulary of that business or industry, and so I
(06:18):
as you see in the video, it can teach the
language of any any subject. Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
So Mike, you had this idea right away, you took
and you made a prototype out of index cards. And
what did you do next? How did you kind of
go through the steps in the process.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
You know, if I proved that worked, played with some people,
et cetera, that I made the finished prototype to what
you saw in the in the in the video, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Okay, so you're still it. You're still a prototype stage.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I have a patent pending and I'm currently seeking a
licensee to license to and produce the product.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Okay. So Mike, as you were developing your prototype, there
were some things in iterations that you had to go
through to get to the point of where you are
with almost a finished prototype. Like you're saying, so you
made your concept on index cards. What did you do
after that to keep the idea moving forward?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well, as I said, I died, I started making the
with the finished prototype. I also did some research on
You can go into the Patent office web page what's
website and look at prior art and see, you know,
what exists. You can also visit department stores that sell
(07:43):
a product similar, if not the exact kind of product,
like a playing card. So you do some basic market
research to see if it's worth spending time on developing
the idea.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Okay, and you felt and based on your research, you
felt like it was a good opportunity absolutely okay. And
and when people look at scrabble and then they look
at your game, what's the kind of when you were
saying your elevator pitch before, what exactly is it that
you feel is going to is going to make the
(08:16):
audience really want your game.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
If they want, you know, if they work in a
in a particular business, if they're an aspiring lawyer and
an aspiring whatever, uh, the buyer of this game and
play it with people. And it's been proven academically, it's
improven that if if you learn the vocabulary of a
(08:43):
subject before you actually start learning the content of the subject,
when you do start learning the content, it will you
will learn it quicker and it will be absorbed more
deeply into your psyche.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Okay, let's take a look at one more video.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Here.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
You have a couple of grades.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
This card game, Gets Smart is helping me learn the
vocabulary of heredity. It is teaching me how to spell
them and the definitions Eli's are the two different types
of gene of a gene, which are dominant and recessive.
Speaker 6 (09:21):
If you really want to nail your academic subjects, get
the word game Get Smart. It's dedicated dictionary, so learn
the vocabulary of any subject, any grade.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Get Smart is available in any subject, any grade.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
So, Mike, you've been at this for a while. You
have the cards at prototype stage, so it looks like
there were nice graphics and the colors and the way
that you wanted to lay it out. Being an art director,
how did that kind of influence the way that you
are having your card game? Look?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Well, it saved me money because if I if I couldn't,
if I couldn't do that myself, I would have the
highest talent to do it. So I was able to
do it myself.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Okay. And the name gets Smart the crossword card game.
So coming up with a name, what kind of experience
was that? Did you have fun coming up with the
name did you kind of go through a few different
thoughts of what it should be?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Actually it was. It was pretty quick. It was like
a don't breaker it just it makes sense. But you
play the game and you get smart. It's that simple
because if you know, if you don't know anything about law,
you play this game, you're going to learn a lot
about law, at least the vocabulary of law.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, when you're working on this game and you're kind
of presenting it, whether it's for a licensing deal or
manufacturing it your yourself, which I know you prefer not to,
but there are different age groups of kids adults. When
you're thinking about who it is that you're going to
(11:04):
pitch it to which audience, how do you come up
with which depending on I guess the the difficulty level
of it, or is there just kind of putting it
out there, like what what's your target audience? And how
did you know that it's the kids first because you
showed a couple of kids videos? But is it also
(11:26):
for adults?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Absolutely? I think I mentioned that it goes right through college.
Just think about if you're a medical student, right, you
have to an awful lot of words new words to you, right,
and we have a game or we can't create a
game specific to whatever whatever division of whatever, whatever kind
(11:55):
of medicine you're going to go into, whether it's you know,
male female, uh, pediatrics, it's geriatrics, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Okay, So just between the level and between the different categories.
So how many different categories do you think you've come
up with at this point?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Well, on this particular product, it's unique in that it's
not limited to one field. For instance, this can be
a potential licensees of this product would be education publishers,
for instance, but or playing card publishers or dictionary people. Uh,
those are three different industries that But but speaking in education,
(12:42):
as I mentioned, the product itself is applicable to any
age group, So I could picture to any any I
got you to a lower grade school of pre kindergarten, college,
you know, et cetera. But it's other product that we
(13:03):
have a video. It's also an education product and specifically
geared toward the student who's just beginning to learn learn
how to read and the first steps of acquiring literacy,
and most of most of us, most of that audience
would be young kids. But it's also going to be
(13:25):
employed by adult learners of English language.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
When you formulated this idea and you kind of laid
it out on the index cards, you mentioned that your
patent pending. You went on, you took a look and
you kind of got yourself educated yourself to a point
of protecting the idea. But how did you know what
to do at that point? You came up with this idea,
you wanted to protect it. So how did you end
(13:52):
up preparing and setting yourself up for intellectual property protection?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Well? I had some brief experience, you know, with the
patent I actually received, and and since that time, uh,
the Patent office has come up with what what do
they call it? Uh, it's a provisional patent application and
by and by and it's it's inexpensive. I mean it's
(14:20):
you don't have to, you know, spend a month's salary
getting a provisional patent application. Uh. And what the key
thing about it is that once you file that, uh,
you you get patent pending status, so you you have
some legal protection you can show with the people and
(14:40):
companies and you know, they see it's patent pending. So
if they don't want to get involved with a law
a law case, Uh, you know they'll respect it.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
So you filed a provisional patent application that gives you
the right for one year to say you're patent pending
while you're exploring thepportunities of possibly trying to license it
like you are, and within that year you're going to
have to file a non provisional patent application and that's
the full patent with the claims, and it's otherwise known
(15:14):
as the utility patent. So do you feel like this
is a utility type of application, type of game? Is
it something also that you consider copywriting with the instructions?
Do you have instructions with it as well?
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yes, I do. I have not copyrighted any of the
instructions or the many different ways that the deck can
be used to play. I'm secure with the I feel
comfortable with the security that the provisional patent application gives me.
And if I get a real bite, you know that
I'll apply for the copyright and if it looks like
(15:54):
it's going to go, it's going to go become a deal,
and then of course I'll invest in and maybe even
try to get the prospective licensee to foot the bill
to find out the the lawyer's bill to file the.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Patent, Mike, As you evolved your idea into the index cards,
into kind of the way that it should look and
be designed, I'm sure one of the fun parts that
you had was actually to have your audience test it
and get some feedback from it. What was that like?
(16:32):
Because you wanted to test it and see how people
responded to it?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Okay, everybody that played the game, both young and old,
college educated or not, enjoyed playing the game and preferred
the playing card version as opposed to the board game
version of Scrabble.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Okay, And what was that like? How did you set
up kind of a test market? How did you survey it?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
See when he was when he was words like test
market and survey It sounds very sophisticated. You know, just
gather with some people. It started with family, started with
my wife, and then with the other family. I have
adult children, I have sister and friends. I played the
game with those people.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Mike, you've worked on this invention, get Smart the crossword
card game. How long have you been working on this
idea more.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Than I'd like to say, Yeah, because it's been a
learning experience for me. Uh, you know, I started out
knowing nothing really, and I got to the point now
where I know something where I was able to reach
out to somewhere like you to help promote me and
(17:48):
my products.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So, Mike, besides this idea, this product that hopefully you're
going to license at some point, tell us about your
self as an inventor. You you've kind of always had
this creative spark. You're an art director, you're an educator.
(18:10):
What is it that you feel has kind of driven
you towards being a product developer? Well?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
My, first of all, I've got that. I think it's
in my gene because I've had relatives that were creative
or somebody I passed away that were all creative. All right.
Uh but and then I said, growing up left handed, Uh,
you know, you you're challenge all the time to resolve
(18:37):
a situation so that it works for you. But but
all my life experiences have brought me to the point
where this is what I want to do because I'm
happiest when i'm creating, you know. So that's this is
my form of gambling, you could say, because I spent
(18:59):
a lot of time and not as little money as
I as I can. But you spend money and uh,
but I'm gambling out myself and my ideas.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
What about your first patent? You mentioned that you have
an issued patent at this point.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yes, it was for and in fact I'm revisiting it.
The patent is is long expired. I got as many
extensions on it as I could, so a lot of
time passed that I really didn't pay much attention to it,
and I felt helpless because there, you know, people like
you and the service that you offer were not in
(19:37):
existence at the time that I got that patent.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
What was the patent on, Mike, Oh.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
A portable toothpost that looks like and fountains like and
functions like a fountain pen. You can literally brush anywhere anytime,
even without water, because it works with a a mouth wash.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And you worked on that invention, you ended up patenting it.
Did you make a prototype? Did it go anywhere? What?
What was that journey?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Like a non functioning prototype? You know, it looks like
but doesn't early work. And when I got to the
point where I was dealing with the lawyer, he said,
we need we need to illustrate the mechanics of it.
So through the lawyer, I hired a mechanical illustrated that
that I actually showed how it worked, how it functions,
(20:34):
line drawings. Yeah, I still have them.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
So, Mike, in order for you to license Get Smart
the Crossword card game, what is your ambition? What are
your next steps? How are other companies going to know
that your card game exists and it's available for licensing. Well,
you're saying that you're doing a Google search on card games,
(20:58):
or how can you find let's say, on LinkedIn you're
finding or you can go into retail stores right and
you look at so you mentioned you went to Hasbro
but you didn't feel comfortable with them because maybe it's
too close. But maybe you go to other card companies, Yes, yes,
that are similar or maybe can align with yours, And
(21:21):
those are the type of companies that you're going to
reach out to to try to get a licensing deal.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Rightly, and that the cheapest and the easiest way is
to get an idea of what companies are in the
market is to go to where they're selling similar kind
of products. But I have in the past and will
continue to do so, I've hired a researcher. It sounds to.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Me, Mike like you hired a freelancer on fiver. Yes,
and you looked up their credentials and you chose somebody
to do some research for you.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Exactly. Great. But playing are some of the things that
I've learned now, right, you know, I said I started
out knowing nothing. Things like that I've learned the hard way.
I had no teacher. You have to learn about yourself.
But companies like like you, like you know what you're doing.
You can learn an awful lot from people like you.
(22:20):
And it's and the exposure you get too.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
It's very nice to have like yourself involved in a
community and get involved with different activities that are going
on because there's people just like you in these type
of situations that have come up with an idea and
looking for the next steps to commercialize it, whether it's
through licensing so you can earn royalties from it and
(22:44):
you can have a company manufactured distribute and you earn
those royalties, or you know, at the same time, you
came up with something that it doesn't take much to
manufacture because it's printed cards. But then you have thousand
units and your five thousand units in your garage. Now,
what how are you going to sell them? So many
(23:05):
of the companies that you were mentioning, like Hasbro or
another type of card company, a toy game company, they
already have manufacturing capability and distribution. So you're looking to
add your product to their product line for you to
earn royalties. That's your number one objective.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yes, I don't want to get involved with manufacturing and
marketing product. Of course, it's not where my interests.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Lie understood, Mike, you've been at this for a while.
There are inventors that are just starting off. They just
came up with an idea in their head and they're
watching or listening today, or maybe they're somewhere along the
way just like you, or maybe they have a finished
product and they're interested in they're selling and they're interested
(23:52):
in hearing your story today, Mike. But everybody has some
kind of thought or lesson that they've learned along the way.
Share us some words of wisdom that we can offer
to the people that are in our audience.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Well, one thing that goes through my mind a lot
is uh, the saying uh ah. Winners never quit and
quitters never win. Because I say I say that because
uh and go also as a saying about you know,
a salesman, one of the first things a salesman learns
(24:29):
is that you're going to get ten or fifty or
one hundred no's before you get one yes. And so
there's a lot of frustration in just getting to the
right people, uh and talking to them. You know, a
real potential licensee you're gonna allow and you know they've
(24:50):
got gatekeepers, all kinds of frustrations involved to get the
product to market. But you know, and you've got to
be pairs, you really do. Otherwise you it's so easy
to lose hope or to lose you know, to lose
the motivation.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Got to keep moving forward, right Mike, exactly, absolutely, And
you as a product developer, you're continuing to come up
with new ideas all the time. So you just keep
your creativity going as an art director, as an inventor,
as a product developer. We wish you all the best, Mike.
Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Mike.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
We'll keep in touch and we're going to find out
what kind of activity is happening with you with the
Get Smart the crossword card game. Hopefully you'll have a
licensee soon and we can buy your game, whether it's
in the stores or it's for educational purposes. Hopefully you
(25:53):
can get the distribution that you're looking for and earn royalties.
Thank you so much, Mike, thank you, thank you. Okay,
so that wraps up our Got Invention Show with Mike
Miranda Get Smart the Crossword card Game. And if you
have an invention, or you're along the way where let's
(26:15):
say you just came up with this idea, or maybe
you're at the point where you're looking to license or
manufacture or you have a finished product, get in touch
with us and share your story and journey with us
on the Got Invention Show. We will see you again
very soon with another episode. Thank you so much, and
keep moving your ideas forward.
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