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Inventor Story – John Lyddon
When John Lyddon moved to the Santa Cruz mountains, he was worried that his young children might be in danger from wildcats that prowled his heavily forested 67 acre ranch. Using a tractor with a bucket and chain, he began to laboriously remove brush, trees and boulders to discourage the wildcats from coming close to his house. He believed that there had to be a better method than dismounting his tractor and struggling with a grapple, chain and bucket whenever he needed to remove a bush, tree, boulder or fence post.
Lyddon had envisioned a vice-like tool that operated in a horizontal plane that could grab and lift objects then move or replace them with precision. He traveled to the World Ag Expo (the world’s largest equipment trade show) in search of such a device. When he found no such tool, he began to discuss his idea with equipment makers who were attending the show. One of them agreed to make a prototype of Lyddon’s concept.
After testing his prototype and refining his design, Lyddon hired a patent attorney and now holds a U.S. patent plus patents in 15 other countries. “I knew I was not the only person who need this tool,” says Lyddon. Lyddon’s Jawz is the only product on the market that operates on a horizontal plane. Many end users currently use specialty or specific function tools, which Lyddon is trying to change. The Jawz can replace many tools being used on the market which translates into big savings in money and time switching from one tool to another.
Perhaps the most important contributor to his success is that in 1998, Bobcat’s patent on quick release technology expired, allowing an army of new light construction vehicles to be introduced to market. Jawz’s compatibility and utility with these new vehicles has given it quite a large market and a huge potential for success.
Like Lyddon’s Jawz, many inventions are often born from a great frustration or dissatisfaction. But can these inventions turn into winning products? That depends on many things, like market size and openness, pricing, distribution options, just to name a few. But beyond all of that, inventors often get stuck when they focus so much on solving the problem that originally gave them all that frustration. Inventors need to focus on what customers want. For instance, Lyddon did not just focus on making a product to remove trees and move boulders, instead he focused on creating a highly compatible tool that performs many functions, because this is what customers wanted. This increases your target market and makes your product more valuable, which translates into better sales. What do your potential customers want?
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