I love learning new things.
Not intellectual e=MC2 kind of things - that would be too much like school and well, grown-upy. Nope, I like my learnin to come from out of the way obscure means, like the entertainment business. I feel so satisfied, it's entertainment and education all in one.
This week I learned a little about QVC. Although I haven't learned yet what the Q-V-C actually stands for (please don't tell me it's Quality Viewing Channel).
I've never bought anything off of QVC but I'm familiar enough with the concept: invent something, price it at $__.99 and watch the phones go crazy. Simple enough.
What I learned that I didn't know (and this is my favorite part of learning, the sharing) is that there is a whole other business out there that consists of people and companies who do nothing but rip off the people who sell their stuff on QVC.
I did not know that.
Apparently, just because you create something, manufacturer it, and sell it on TV - does NOT make it yours. Go figure. What it makes it is fair game. This of course, only applies to something that does not have a patent on it. And if you create something that is obscure enough in terms of the materials used to create it, you can't get a patent on it.
Did I lose you?
Let me give you an example; in fact I will use the same one that I heard about on the radio (there I go again learning things from entertainment).
This is the Slanket. Does it look familiar? It should. Because it's basically the same thing as the Snuggie. And the Huddler.
The Slanket was created in 1998 by a cold college kid in Maine named Gary. Now because Gary was a poor college kid he didn't have the money to promote his invention 24/7 so he had to be choosey. He scraped together enough money to sell his product on QVC and suddenly chilly people from Maine to Alaska could warm up, hold their hot toddy and keep out that cold winter's draft simultaneously.
Because Gary's invention was a variation on a blanket and really didn't have a lot of parts to it, the patent department didn't see fit to issue a patent. Enter Snuggie, Huddler and other wearable blankets.
Isn't capitalism cool?
Gary seemed to take it all in stride; although I suspect enough time has now gone by (and enough money has been made) that the audacity of the theft has worn down to a nub of irritation that will remain with him always like the canker sore from hell.
Now because the corporation that created the Snuggie had lots of money behind it, it could buy up airtime on channels like QVC, HSN and 2am rotations on the CW. But all was not lost because you see the more the Big Corporation promoted Snuggie, the more attention the Slanket received (in theory anyway). Again, capitalism at work. Cool, huh?
It really is cool. It makes the world go 'round (because it produces money) and allows us little people to carve out our own niche on the world. The lesson of course being that you should be sure your niche is patentable, otherwise you're going to end up hawking your new Slanket Siamese on QVC while some schmo watching takes this brilliant idea to his boss and proclaims it his.
This story not only taught me about capitalism, but also about QVC because I had NO idea QVC was located in West Chester, PA and gives studio tours! I can't help but wonder how many times I've driven past that place ("Oblivious, party of one").
I can think of no better day trip for Skippy and I then a visit to the QVC studio where we will be able to watch the QVC programs in progress!
I wonder if they will sign my Slanket.
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