I am looking for examples of companies that are in a particular kind
of business. The business is as follows:

The company should be engaged in "product invention". Ideally, the
kind of company that I am looking for will scout around for
interesting products that need to be invented or redesigned, go about
inventing or redesigning them, and then license the products out to
other companies for manufacture and/or marketing. Ideally, I'm looking
at companies that do these three things: analyse need, design/invent
products, and partner with other companies who bring it to market.

I've searched for such companies quite a bit, and haven't been able to
find any, so I'll also settle for companies that "almost" do this. For
example, the company may not actually go out and find products to be
invented; they may be a kind of consultancy that other companies go to
to invent products. (An excellent example would be IDEO.)

However, as the baseline, I _am_ looking for companies that: (a) have
a lot of inventions that they've built; and (b) don't actually
manufacture or market these inventions as their own brands, but do
this by licensing them out other bigger companies. 

I am looking for four or five such companies (not counting ideo),
preferably profitable, and more or less well-established.

Thanks!

ajitq

---

Clarification of Question by ajitq-ga on 31 Aug 2005 01:28 PDT

Another company that I've heard does something similar is
Bresslergroup Inc (www.bresslergroup.com). However, they're not an
exact match to what I was looking for, either.

Hi Ajitq,

May I ask of your intentions?

Are you a venture capitalist? If so, I have some information 
which may be of valuable interest to you. The company of which
I spend time is a family of inventors/innovators sourcing
materials world wide for their own applications in various practical 
designs, especially so in the Rural and OH&S booming industries.

My involvement so far is simply the intrigue of learning from friends
with profit not being my objective.

Please share some more information. My only concern here is in not
being able to make direct contact under the rules of G. Perhaps you
could direct me to another forum or point of public meeting in order to 
openly discuss some positive ideas.

Silver (for the moment)

Silver,

Thank you for your comment.

No, I am not a venture capitalist. My intention for finding out this
information is academic -- I am an engineer, and I am investigating
companies like this as part of a thesis that I am writing. A little
later, I may also be interested in applying for jobs at such
companies.

The company that you are talking about certainly sounds very
interesting and seems to fit the bill. I don't know if you are still
interested in helping me out, given I am not a VC, but if you are, I
would be very very grateful if you could give me some more information
about it, particularly how it operates and whether it is a successful
business model or not. If privacy is important, you could contact me
at: diminishing.returns [at] gmail.com.

ajitq