(7) Chindogu - the useless inventions

There are good inventions and there are useless inventions. As you
must know that anybody can file a patent on pratically anything that
is unique enough to meet the requirement of the patent office.




In Japan, it is a craze for the Japaneses to file a patent and be
called an inventor. And of course, 99% of them never make in into the
marketplace at all. And being inventive as they are, they went to
create a 'society' for unless inventions called 'Chindogu' which
relatively means useless inventions.


    

But mind you, useless inventions doesn't mean you cannot make money
from them! There are many inventions which were 'invented' for other
purposes and landed to be another which make millions of dollars for
the inventor. One of the best example is the 'Post-it' pad. 3M Company
was developing a better glue. And the result was a 'useless' glue with
low adhesive quality and they found a use for it.

So, if you are holding a 'failed' invention in your hands now, take
another look at it and asked "if it is not good for what it is meant
to be, what else is it good for?"

I will tell you a story which I heard some my good friend, Michael
Dabic. He is one great inventor and the founder of the Dibico Inc
which manufacture the 'pits' on the airports which monitor the
runaways. 99% of the world airports uses his technology.

Here's the story.... there was once a guy who visit a tropical country
and saw a factory which makes wooden toilet seats. They were beautiful
and cheap. He thought that he could easily make a small fortune from
them so he at once placed an order for a container load.

Later when the goods arrived, he took a sample to the shops to show it
to the people. And to his grief, he found that the toilets in the
Asian countries are smaller than the standards in the USA....

That looks like a whole container of toilet seats going down the
toilet bowl....

He went home, sat down on his favourite sofa and hold up one of the
seat in his hands abd move it around the room. And UREKA ! He could
the answer! And he couldn't thank his mother-in-law enough for saving
him from his financial doom...

It was the picture of her on the wall which gave him the idea of
selling the wooden toilet seat as picture frames!




For more about useless inventions, go to:

http://www.designboom.com/history/useless.html




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