Although I’m cited as “inventor” on many patents through the years, I recently took the opportunity for the first time to file my own patent on an invention idea I had. I’m a dog person so I’m plenty familiar with the struggle of trimming pet nails and the chaos, suffering, and maybe worst of all the distrust that a nicked nail quick can cause to a pet. With that in mind I set off to address this by using a simple visual approach to viewing your animal’s nail quick through the commonly translucent nail keratin using white light. The approach I used specifically controls the lighting conditions and is meant to project a majority of light through the back nail to the front of the keratin revealing the quick so that the user can trim accordingly. This is similar to how you would trace over a drawing on a white board, and it’s as much about where light isn’t directed as to where it is directed.
Early in the design process, benchmarking research was derived externally and from references revealed in the provisional patent process. After confidence in our IP was secured we assessed our competitors and realized the potential improvements we could offer customers. With this information and inpsiration we proceeded to align partners for a licensing and manufacturing contract.
Eventually a partnership was secured to license & distribute the item to an assortment of retailers as well as online vendors. Presently the item is successfully selling while an evolution and other expansion opportities are pursued. The item can be readily purchased though Amazon at this link.