coldwell banker cb - Watertown Daily Times
coldwell banker cb - Watertown Daily Times
coldwell banker cb - Watertown Daily Times
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PROGRESS 2008<br />
WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES Sunday,March Day,Month Date,Year 2,2008 13 C5<br />
Toying with ideas: marketing an invention can be tough<br />
By ROBERT RODRIGUEZ<br />
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS<br />
FRESNO, Calif. — When a<br />
Fresno mother-and-daughter<br />
duo’s idea for a hide-and-seek<br />
doll made it onto the shelves of<br />
one of the nation’s largest toy<br />
stores, they felt like they had<br />
won the lottery.<br />
Shelly Conte and her mother,<br />
Cindy Reichman, were riding<br />
high. Their patented Hide-N-<br />
Seek Hayley doll was being sold<br />
at Toys “R” Us stores nationwide,<br />
becoming a top seller during the<br />
2005 holiday season.<br />
“I remember someone telling<br />
us that we were going to be millionaires,”<br />
said Shelly Conte. “And<br />
I was thinking about it, no doubt.”<br />
But Conte and Reichman’s<br />
dreams of fame and fortune began<br />
to unravel about a year later<br />
when a major player in the industry<br />
put a new spin on its popular<br />
Care Bear by introducing a<br />
hide-and-seek version. It soon<br />
edged out Hide-N-Seek Hayley,<br />
whose sales began to plummet.<br />
Business experts say that in a<br />
fiercely competitive market for<br />
new products, copycats and timing<br />
all play a part in whether a<br />
new product stays on a store’s<br />
shelves or is relegated to the bargain<br />
bin. And to survive, they say,<br />
an entrepreneur must be market<br />
savvy, develop brand loyalty and<br />
“sleep with one eye open.”<br />
“This can be a very tough<br />
business, and knockoff products<br />
are commonplace,” said Tim<br />
Walsh, a Florida-based toy inventor<br />
and author of “Timeless<br />
Toys,” a book that looks at classic<br />
toys and the people who created<br />
them. “The problem is that success<br />
often prompts others to<br />
want in on what you are doing.”<br />
Walsh said a classic example<br />
is the Hula-Hoop. The name was<br />
trademarked in 1958 by Wham-<br />
O, but it didn’t stop others from<br />
cashing in on the plastic hoop’s<br />
popularity.<br />
Walsh estimated that over the<br />
years Wham-O has kept only a<br />
quarter of the market.<br />
Inventors say they never rest<br />
easy: The possibility of a much<br />
larger competitor taking them<br />
out is always a chief concern.<br />
“I know I could wake up one<br />
day, and it could all be gone,”<br />
said Kathleen Whitehurst, co-inventor<br />
of DaysAgo, a digital daycounter<br />
that attaches to food<br />
containers and measures freshness<br />
of refrigerated products. “It<br />
is a cruel world out there, and<br />
that’s why you have to cover all<br />
your bases.”<br />
Part of Whitehurst’s strategy<br />
was to get her product distributed<br />
in foreign markets, where copycats<br />
often spring up. The DaysAgo<br />
counter is sold in the United<br />
States, Canada, Sweden, Norway,<br />
Iceland, Australia and Japan.<br />
“You basically have to get out<br />
there first and establish yourself<br />
as the recognizable brand,” said<br />
Whitehurst, of St. Helena, Calif.<br />
“But you are never safe. You just<br />
have to keep pedaling as fast as<br />
you can.”<br />
Jennifer Barney, the Fresno<br />
mom who created Barney Butter,<br />
an almond spread, credited<br />
her survival to maintaining<br />
strong relationships with the<br />
grocery stores that carry her<br />
product. She said she holds<br />
product demonstrations in as<br />
many of the stores as she can.<br />
“It can be exhausting,” said<br />
Barney, whose butter is sold in<br />
six states and 106 stores. “But the<br />
bottom line is they want to see<br />
sales, and I will only stay alive if<br />
my product sells well.”<br />
Rookie inventors Reichman<br />
and Conte said their tumble<br />
from Toys “R” Us taught them<br />
many hard lessons, the most<br />
sobering is that patents don’t always<br />
protect you from copycats.<br />
Shocked and frustrated by<br />
their abrupt sales slide, Conte<br />
and Reichman terminated their<br />
contract last year with Hayley’s<br />
manufacturer, the Kid-riffic toy<br />
company in St. Louis, which they<br />
fault for a lack of promotion.<br />
Kid-riffic CEO Michael<br />
Roberts could not be reached.<br />
“We are almost in the exact<br />
same position we were eight<br />
years ago, when we started this<br />
idea,” Cindy Reichman said.<br />
Reichman and Conte considered<br />
suing Play Along, the Florida-based<br />
Care Bear makers, but<br />
backed off after a lawyer specializing<br />
in such cases advised that<br />
they didn’t have a strong enough<br />
case. And even so, experts say,<br />
defending a patent can cost<br />
thousands of dollars in legal fees.<br />
A spokeswoman for Play<br />
Along’s parent company, JAKKS<br />
Pacific, stood by the company’s<br />
v<br />
BUSINESS UPDATE<br />
FRESNO BEE<br />
Cindy Reichman, left, and Shelly Conte, mother and daughter, are pictured with their invention, a Hide-N-<br />
Seek Hayley doll. The doll was once sold at Toys ‘R’ Us, but competition forced them out of the store.<br />
decision to create the hide-andseek<br />
Care Bear. Genna Rosenberg<br />
of JAKKS Pacific said the<br />
owners of Hide-N-Seek Hayley<br />
would only have a case for trademark<br />
infringement if Play Along<br />
gave its bear a similar name to<br />
the Hayley toy.<br />
The daughter-mom inventor<br />
team’s patent attorney, Richard<br />
Ryan of Fresno, agreed, saying<br />
Play Along was careful not to<br />
copy the name “Hayley” or the<br />
specific technology used by the<br />
doll to play hide and seek.<br />
Hayley, a soft 15-inch doll,<br />
comes with a hand-held radio<br />
v<br />
device that offers clues to where<br />
she’s hiding. Depending on the<br />
distance, the walkie-talkie will<br />
tell a child whether he or she is<br />
getting closer or farther.<br />
“Realistically, their competitor<br />
is doing it differently — and<br />
frankly not as unique as the Hayley<br />
doll,” Ryan said. “But it is not<br />
unfair competition, it is just<br />
competition.”<br />
Reichman and Conte have<br />
made calls to toy companies and<br />
placed ads in industry magazines<br />
hoping to find a new manufacturer<br />
— all with no luck.<br />
Although Hide-N-Seek Hayley<br />
didn’t make millions as Conte<br />
and Reichman dreamed of, it<br />
did bring in about $100,000,<br />
which the pair split and used to<br />
pay bills.<br />
Conte also bought a couch<br />
and a washer and dryer.<br />
Still, the pair is not giving up.<br />
They want Hayley and a companion<br />
toy, a hide-and-seek dog<br />
named Sammie, on store<br />
shelves and they’re also hoping<br />
to enlist the help of Congress,<br />
the general public, even Oprah<br />
Winfrey, to push for tougher<br />
protections for small inventors<br />
and against copycats.<br />
Children’s home year<br />
highlighted by expansions<br />
The Children’s Home of Jefferson<br />
County expanded services<br />
this past year by establishing<br />
a Big Brothers Big Sisters affiliate,<br />
expanding its prevention<br />
programs into St. Lawrence<br />
County and renovating its residential<br />
treatment facilities.<br />
Big Brothers Big Sisters of the<br />
North County, which received<br />
its national affiliate status in<br />
January 2007, has enrolled more<br />
than 200 children in its community<br />
and site-based programs,<br />
matching volunteer adult mentors<br />
with children and providing<br />
continuing support and activities<br />
to participants. The affiliate<br />
is operating site-based programs<br />
in partnership with<br />
Beaver Falls New Life Fellowship<br />
in Lewis County and the<br />
Potsdam Central School District<br />
and SUNY Potsdam in St.<br />
Lawrence County.<br />
CHJC developed agreements<br />
with the Carthage, Massena and<br />
Potsdam school districts to implement<br />
its Wings program,<br />
which works with a district’s<br />
highest at-risk students and<br />
their families to provide services<br />
and coordination to improve<br />
student performance and behavior.<br />
The agency also completed<br />
a $425,000 renovation of<br />
one of its four cottages, the first<br />
major renovation of residential<br />
space in 80 years.<br />
Plans for 2008 include developing<br />
new partnerships with organizations<br />
to expand BBBSNC,<br />
prevention and other community-based<br />
programs, as well as<br />
developing funding streams for<br />
the continued renovation of its<br />
residential cottages.<br />
Founded in 1859, CHJC<br />
evolved from an orphanage and<br />
foster care facility into a regional<br />
residential treatment facility for<br />
delinquent, neglected and<br />
abused youth. Through the past<br />
decade the agency has followed<br />
the human services trend of<br />
working with troubled families<br />
to avoid out-of-home placements,<br />
developing a slate of<br />
community-based programs<br />
that include foster care, delinquency<br />
prevention, aftercare<br />
treatment, and casework service<br />
for special populations.<br />
CHJC is headquartered at<br />
1704 State St., <strong>Watertown</strong>, where<br />
its residential treatment program<br />
is located, and operates its<br />
community-based programs<br />
from the Marcy Building in<br />
downtown <strong>Watertown</strong>. The<br />
agency employs 150 professionals<br />
and support staff. CHJC in<br />
fiscal 2007 served nearly 900<br />
clients, more than double the<br />
number served in 2002.<br />
Karen Y. Richmond is executive<br />
director of the 501(c)(3)<br />
nonprofit agency, and Mark G.<br />
Waterbury is president of its<br />
board of directors.<br />
School of dance, piano<br />
marks third year in city<br />
Centre Des Arts <strong>Watertown</strong>, a<br />
school of dance, piano, theater<br />
and French operated by Kimberly<br />
A. Mittelstadt at the Lincoln<br />
Building, 95 Public Square,<br />
Suite 308, <strong>Watertown</strong>, marked<br />
its third year in January.<br />
Ballet is central to the dance<br />
program and it is recommended<br />
that all students take at least<br />
one year of ballet. Classes are<br />
available for students age 3 to<br />
adult. There are also pre-pointe<br />
and pointe classes. Tap is taught<br />
to students ages 3 to adult. It is<br />
N<br />
recommended that students<br />
who take tap also take ballet for<br />
OW<br />
at least<br />
IN HDTV!<br />
one year. Jazz dancing is<br />
taught to students ages 7 to<br />
adult.<br />
Each piano lesson is 30 minutes<br />
long. Students need to have<br />
a piano book that they can use<br />
to practice with. French classes<br />
run for six weeks and it is recommended<br />
that beginning students<br />
purchase the book<br />
"French in Ten Minutes A Day."<br />
Classes sections are taught by<br />
age and grade in school. Private<br />
and Semi-private tutoring sessions<br />
are also available.<br />
Theater classes run for six<br />
weeks and cover auditioning,<br />
acting, singing, movement,<br />
character development and<br />
makeup.<br />
Mrs. Mittelstadt is a graduate<br />
of Potsdam State University College<br />
with a bachelor of arts degree<br />
in French and a master of<br />
science in reading.<br />
She is state-licensed to teach<br />
French, reading and elementary<br />
education. She has directed numerous<br />
shows for the <strong>Watertown</strong><br />
community and is currently<br />
the president and<br />
founder of the Northern New<br />
WWNY 7NEW S<br />
T HE N ORTH C OUNTRY ’ S F INEST<br />
York Dance Alliance. She was instrumental<br />
in forming Dance<br />
Festival Week and bringing nationally<br />
known professional<br />
dancers to <strong>Watertown</strong> to conduct<br />
workshops.<br />
In January Mrs. Mittelstadt<br />
directed a Little Theatre of <strong>Watertown</strong><br />
production of “The Lion,<br />
the Witch and the<br />
Wardrobe,” a children’s play<br />
based on the C.S. Lewis book.<br />
For more about Centre Des<br />
Arts <strong>Watertown</strong> call 782-0908, or<br />
e-mail twins@twcny.rr.com<br />
The Rookery specializes<br />
in condominiums for birds<br />
EVANS MILLS — The Rookery,<br />
31139 Gardnerville Road, is<br />
a business in which Robert Ashley<br />
builds 16-room condominiums<br />
for birds.<br />
It began last October when<br />
Mr. Ashley made a martin condo<br />
for his niece as a Christmas<br />
present.<br />
“I found out after having major<br />
heart surgery and a pacemaker<br />
that strenuous work was<br />
out of the question,” Mr. Ashley<br />
writes. “I have always had an interest<br />
in building things but<br />
never had the time to pursue it.”<br />
“I build 16-room martin condominiums<br />
and regular bird<br />
houses. The houses are built to<br />
last out of lumber, not plywood.”<br />
“I never knew there was such<br />
an interest in the martin houses<br />
until I started building them,”<br />
he writes. “Do you think it might<br />
be because the Martins eat so<br />
many mosquitoes?”<br />
For more information call Mr.<br />
Ashley at 629-4200.<br />
Visit morganstanley.com