Invention Alley
Invention review services by Ron Vigneri are offered. His experience and counsel have been utilized by many inventors over the past two decades. His background in numerous technologies and his history in bringing inventions to market is extensive. Companies based upon certain of his patents have been created, operationally successful, profitable, and often sold at a significant premium.
Ron has been "burned" enough by partners and third parties to be able to recognize and instruct against the many problems and threats facing an inventor and his invention. The system is stacked against the small inventor, particularly the US patent system. He knows what to do within the system and what to avoid. He has counseled on pursuing patents or keeping the invention a trade secret and proprietary.
Basically, the US patent system promises a monopoly on your invention by awarding a patent, but you have to pursue any infringement yourself. The cost of trying to protect your patents is usually costly and futile. Even if you win a case, the technology usually continues to be infringed by another party or parties. The more valuable the invention, the more infringers.
The money an inventor would spend on infringement litigation is better applied to trying to extend the appliation of the invention and keeping it company proprietary. Trade secrets hold far more security than trying to depend on protection from the patent courts.
A simple but legally proper non-use and non-disclosure form (NU/ND) is critical to all inventors, but particularly small business entities. Vetechnet has available a simple, time-tested version to protect your idea or invention. The fact of having to proceed with a NU/ND is always a complicating factor because it is natural for someone to resist agreeing to and signing any document with legal ramifications.
Ron Vigneri Patent History
Laser Gyro 1963-69 US 3535040 Assigned to Bendix Corporation
Guidance for Boeing 757, 767, 777 aircraft plus other aircraft, misslies, weapon systems, and rockets.
Honeywell awarded a plaque to Ron after delivery of the 250,000 unit in 2005. He would have rathered $1 per unit. Ron received a $25 check from Bendix Corp. as a patent award and promptly quit, joined another company and was contracted there to continue to develop the Laser Gyro for Bendix, NASA, and the Army Missile Comand.
Laser Printer 1970-73 US 3751587 Assigned to Saxon Corporation by Holobeam Inc.
Built with a mode-locked neodymium: yttrium alumin garnet (Nd:YAG) laser requiring water cooling capable of writing 10,000 dots/inch (dpi) and 1,000 lines per second.
The first use of lasers to print copies some 20 years before an industry developed for PC systems. This technology was so far ahead of its time that it is hard to believe (no small semiconductor lasers or PCs back then).
Thermox Process 1981-85 US 4423780 and US 4456069
Oil well secondary recovery and treatment systems.
Technology for producing more US oil & gas from existing and new wells. 25 years too soon! The present natural gas drilling boom should bring back this technology, especially now that the patents have expired.
CleanOX Process 1991-99 US 5286141 and 5520483
Groundwater remediation system using hydrogen peroxide chemical reactions. The patents created a whole international industry labelled "ISCO" for in-situ chemical oxidation system. These patents have been infringed worldwide. Numerous international patents have also been granted over the years (some in his name without any consent). The CleanOX assets were sold to ManTech International in 1998.
Note: Dozens of foreign patents related to the above are not listed.
Company Proprietary Inventions (not patented)
1965 Electronic Tachometer - Bendix Corporation
1974 Computerized Night Vision System Production Line - North American Philips Corp.
1978 Computerized Tennis Match Charting System - USPTA
1980 Monopropellent Rocket Engines - Rocket Man, Inc.
1984 Remote Oil Field Operating System (ROFOS) - Depco Corp.
1985 Material Carrier Device - RockHopper Inc.
1991 Special Purpose Fire Fighting Equipment (SPUFF) - Recotech Inc.
1991 PureOX High Purity Tank Manifold - Spartanburg Steel Products Inc.
1993 Trembucker Guitar Pickup - Seymour Duncan Inc
1999 Swimming Pool Cooler - KoolPool Inc.
