A toy aisle product
A water gun with a real pump
Licensed to a toy company
Lonnie Johnson, an engineer, was experimenting with nozzles for a new kind of heat pump when one shot a stream of water across the bathroom. Toy stores already sold water pistols. His used a hand pump to build air pressure inside the gun, so it fired a strong, steady stream.
The everyday problem
He thought the nozzles would make a good water gun, and a toy was something anyone could appreciate. He built prototypes in a basement shop, then pitched toy companies until a small one, Larami, agreed to make it.
The simple change
- He patented the pressurized water gun.
- He licensed it, which means a toy company made and sold it and paid him on the sales.
- He did not have to own the factory to get paid.
What happened
Forbes reports Super Soaker retail sales of more than $1 billion, and Johnson was paid a royalty on those sales. He has said his contract was only a patent license, so the Super Soaker brand name was not his. The patents have since expired.
What you can take from this
Licensing is how an inventor gets paid while someone else does the manufacturing. The patent is the contract behind those checks.
A public story, told here as an example. It is not a client of this practice, and I had no part in it. Results like this are rare. Most patents never earn money, and nothing here is a promise that your idea will be patented or will make money.