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Thinking Outside the Bowl – The Fish ‘N Flush Story
Arkansas native Herbert Demoret woke up one morning in 1997 with an unusual idea in his head. In a dream, he had seen the vivid image of tropical fish swimming around in the tank behind a toilet. From that unique vision, the retired merchant marine conceived a new type of bathroom fixture.
“The basic concept was to combine the standard features of an aquarium with a commode, and make it a thing of living beauty for a bathroom,” Demoret said.
To help further develop his idea, Demoret decided to sit down and make some sketches. While he instantly recognized the possibility of creating a clear toilet tank to display the fish, he was puzzled by another problem: the flush.
“It just wasn’t practical,” he said. “Every time you’d flush, you’d lose the fish.”
Demoret overcame that obstacle by devising a split-tank design that kept the fish tank area separate from the flushing area. Along with such design issues, Demoret also faced the challenge of trying to explain his invention to people who had trouble sharing his creative vision. Often times his idea was greeted with raised eyebrows and chuckles.
“I told one woman and she laughed and said it was the craziest idea she’d ever heard,” Demoret remembers.
Still, Demoret wasn’t deterred. With his idea mapped out on paper, he began searching for small toilets to make into models. It was also around this time that he decided to contact InventHelp. In addition to purchasing InventHelp’s submission services, Demoret chose to take advantage of the patent referral service. In November of 1999, Demoret’s idea received a patent – a development that would play an important role in the future of the invention.
“InventHelp was very helpful to me,” Demoret explains. “I didn’t know how to go about getting a patent or anything like that, so I found that service pretty useful.”
While InventHelp submitted Demoret’s idea to companies for review, he also continued to pursue it independently. He partnered with George Zygounakis, a product designer from California, and the two began to tweak the design and build a prototype. In 2002, Demoret and Zygounakis traveled with their prototype to a trade show in Las Vegas where they first began to see the market potential for the idea.
“The invention really was a showstopper,” Demoret said. “We had crowds of all kinds of people surrounding our booth all the time - more than any other booth there, in fact.”
Though the invention was a hit at the show, Demoret and Zygounakis were still unable to find a manufacturer or marketer for the product. Without the resources to continue pursuing the invention, it seemed for a time that Demoret’s idea might have run its course. But then a little bit of luck intervened.
In 2006, Aqua One, a company that manufactures water management products, began to develop a product similar to the one Demoret conceived. A patent search conducted by Aqua One turned up Demoret’s invention, so company president Richard Quintana contacted him to express interest in his idea. Since neither Demoret nor Zygounakis had any experience with product licensing, Demoret contacted InventHelpsm for assistance. Intromark, a company that works to license and market InventHelpsm inventions, quickly went to work negotiating a licensing agreement between Aqua One and the inventors.
“Intromark has been a great resource,” Demoret explains. “They negotiated everything for my licensing agreement a lot better than I could have ever done on my own.”
With the ink dried on the licensing deal, Aqua One got the ball rolling on the manufacturing process. After making some improvements to Demoret’s design and christening the product with the name “Fish ‘N Flush”, a final sample of the invention was finally produced. To date, the sample has been displayed at the Las Vegas Kitchen and Bath Show, the National Hardware Show and INPEX®, America’s largest invention trade show. Aqua One is currently taking orders for the product online.
InventHelpsm salutes and celebrates inventors like Herbert Demoret, who have the imagination and determination to bring their inventions to life.
The Fish ‘N Flush has not been a financial gain for Mr. Demoret so far, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that this will change with Aqua One’s new marketing initiatives. The Fish ‘N Flush may be purchased on the web at www.fishnflush.com.
To learn more about InventHelp’s submission services, please complete our Inventor Information Request Form or call toll-free 1-800-INVENTION.
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