Silver Spring Residents Hope Light-Bulb Moments Will Be Rewarded

Silver Spring residents Catherine Sumi Kay and Shaun Sablowski say they have always had great ideas for inventions but never followed through on them. But now the house mom and the auto parts salesman are channeling their inner Edisons and making good on some of those ideas.

Each has patents pending for two products: Kay developed a portable potty-training platform made of recyclable plastic, and Sablowski invented flavored pen tops.

At the end of last year, Kay was struggling through a divorce and a failed online business endeavor. Her father also had a debilitating stroke.

"I was at the depths of despair," said Kay, 40. "All I had for myself were the ideas in my head."

When searching online for business ideas, she came across Whirlpool's Mother of Invention program, a competition for "Mom-trepreneurs" with invention ideas.

Kay thought about the potty training of her 4-year-old daughter, Natalie, and how difficult it was to find a safe and convenient stepping platform for the youngster. With her brother's help, Kay made sketches of a safe, "green" potty-training platform and developed a wooden prototype.

With her daughter as the model, she submitted a photographic essay explaining her product to Whirlpool. Design details could not be disclosed because the patent application is pending, but Kay described the product as a "safe, stable stepping platform" that is not available in stores.

Of the more than 2,200 entries nationwide, Kay won first place in the "green" category, because the platform is made of recyclable plastic. She received $7,000, which will go toward legal fees during the patent process.

The most valuable part of the prize, she said, was a "business boot camp" held in October. Executives from Wal-Mart and Gerber taught winners how to develop products and manage a business.

"As a mom, if I'd had her invention with my first child it would have changed everything we did around potty training," said Audrey Reed-Granger, Whirlpool's director of public relations, who created the competition four years ago.

Sablowski took a more traditional approach and said she hopes to chew up the competition in the writing-instrument-you-can-taste industry.

He said his flavored pen tops will function like plastic tops on standard pens but will be infused with flavors, "the same way you make a piece of candy."

"I chew on pens, and I work with people who do," said Sablowski, 28. "It's a habit and it's unsanitary, but it's something people do. Why not do it and have flavor to it?"

Sablowski decided to pursue the invention last year and approached Advent Product Development, a South Carolina-based company that assists inventors through the patent, manufacturing and design processes.

The company chose Sablowski's pen tops out of about 5,000 ideas it receives each month and signed him to a two-year contract. Advent would get a cut of the proceeds if the pen tops are manufactured.

Sablowski said that he doesn't anticipate that his pen tops will be on the market until at least June and that he is content with his day job.

"I'm not trying to take over the world and end up in a Ferrari," Sablowski said. "I just want to know I designed this product and be recognized for it."