© 2024 South Carolina Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

SC Inventor Succeeds Through Licensing

Mike Switzer
Mike Switzer

  It's probably safe to say that a lot of people, from time to time, have great ideas about inventing a new product that they know will make doing something easier and/or cheaper. And if that idea is indeed acted upon, it usually involves hiring a patent attorney to do patent searches, then hiring a draftsman to put the idea on paper, etc...taking up lots of money and lots of time (usually thousands of dollars and several years). Our next guest, however, believes product licensing is a much more practical avenue toward invention success.

Mike Switzer interviews Roger Brown, serial inventor, product licensing agent, and author of Common Sense Inventing, who lives and invents in North Augusta, SC.

Stay Connected
After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.