I have dreamed of building a small barbecue house, but the problem with the construction itself has been the implementation of a load-bearing structure in the middle of the roof ridge. There is no product available online or in hardware stores with which an ordinary summer cottage builder can make the barrel through the roof and attach it to a height of four meters.
I realized that this can be commercialized!
I got an idea, which I drew on a paper. I am the financial manager of Savonia’s real estate and our welding lab was familiar to me, so I presented the idea to Juhani Mikkonen and Keijo Korhonen. In their skilled hands, from the images of the paper emerged a metallic prototype, which became really good already the very first time. I realized that this could be commercialized, because there is no similar product on the market. We did a little bit more brainstorming, and a prototype number two was made. Finally, there was the final number three. With that, the original ideas had turned into a product made of metal, the duct of the grill house barrel.
I presented the idea to a few experts at Savonia Centers and was instructed to apply for design protection for the product. Applying for it costs only € 250, so it is a much cheaper and easier way to secure the exclusive rights of your own product. More information on model protection can be found on the Finnish Patent and Registration Office’s website at https://www.prh.fi/en/mallioikeudet.html.
Draft participation crystallized customer need and product description into a one package
Centers also presented me the idea to take the product to the Draft program competition, in which Savonia’s staff can also participate. That participation crystallized the product’s customer need and product description into one package. Feedback from the program was also helpful. Success in the program provided me a small initial financial support to pay for the design protection and part of the producing costs of the idea. I also made an invention declaration of my idea to Savonia in accordance with the organization’s invention guidelines.
Making this 0-series product has offered me a possibility to be an inventor for a while. I have named the product as Kulmikas Ratkaisu, KuRa. In product IPR rights, the product is named as a polygon bracket. The excellent sparring from the Draft program is helpful when fumbling forward with an idea. I truly recommend!
– Seppo Lyyra-