Protecting our intellectual property – Patents
Which brings us to inventions and patents. We have very talented designers on our team. We don’t hesitate to protect our intellectual property by securing patents on our inventions.
We don’t want to be followers. We pride ourselves on being leaders in the markets that we occupy.
Our inventions and designs don’t have to be complicated or complex. Oftentimes, the most simple products are the most successful.
For example, think about 3M’s post-its. Who would have thought that adding adhesive to a small piece of paper would be such a big seller? 3M, that’s who.
Not complex. But super successful. Today 3M sells over 50 billion post-its a year. Yes, that qualifies as “super successful.” (For full disclosure, it’s also why we invest in 3M).
Because we are innovating and improving products we usually insist on our suppliers signing our Product Development and Manufacture Non-disclosure & Non-compete Agreement.