Originally Posted 4/29/06

You will notice that I did not provide live commentary for last Thursday’s episode of American Inventor. Why? Several reasons: first, I a becoming more and more disillusioned with the show. We just do not get the whole story of what is going on. In short, I have it on reliable information from and about clients of the firm that participated in the show (but never made it on the air) that there are other audition rounds and elimination rounds outside of those that were aired.

Case in point, in Denver an inventor with off-road inline skates was passed to the second round, BUT for one reason or another he never made the second round. And how about numerous contestants that won a place in the second round that were never seen again. What happened to them? There most have been secret unbroadcast elimination rounds. What was the criteria and basis for these elimination rounds? Will we ever know?

And then there is the complete failure to address anything relating to the protectability of the inventions or whether the inventions have been invented before. Peter Lemire suggested to me that perhaps the show doesn’t care about patents because they know that patent or not they can produce and sell the product and make millions just based on the promotion for the winning invention. This is probably true but the reality is for the gross majority of inventors, who have not had their inventions promoted week after week on a national television show, their only chance at success against more well heeled competitors is a patent. You would think that the show would endeavor to inform and help the inventing public by giving them pointers and such on how to do things right, BUT I suspect the producers really don’t care about anything but ratings maximization.

Enough ranting…

I was really glad to see the dual traction bike advance to the next round. I believe it beats the Receiver’s Training pole if only because of its broader appeal. It would probably sell well in an infomercial to be later transitioned to toy stores and national retailers, such as Wal-Mart.

Anyhow, I received a call Friday. I didn’t immediately realize who it was. He was talking a mile a minute and was obviously very excited. He mentioned his name was Martinez, but that did not ring any bells as I have at least one client with that surname and have had consultations with several Martinez’s. But then something he said clicked in my brain and I realized it was none other than Mark Martinez of the Sackmaster 2000.

I will not reveal specifics about he told me because I imagine that he is still under a confidentiality agreement with ABC and the show but I can say he wanted to give his side of things concerning what really happened and how he was portrayed on the show. SUFFICE IT TO SAY: everything you see on a reality show is not in fact REALITY. Things are presented certain ways through editing and only telling part of the storing that can drastically change how a person, such as Mark, appears to the TV watching public. To a large extend this appears to have happened to Mark.

Anyhow, based on my conversation Mark Martinez seems to be a good if not great guy. I have had people call me or email as a result of a blog articles I have written about them, their company or their products and just spew anger and hatred.

I might have suspected that of Mark considering how critical I have been of him in my posts. BUT Mark just wanted to give his side of the story and didn’t appear to be at all angry with me. I don’t know if I would have been as civil and genteel as Mark if the situation was reversed. So kudos to Mr. Martinez’s high character.

I did ask Mr. Martinez how things have been going since the show, and he told me the phone is ringing off the hook. So good luck to you, Mr. Martinez. I hope to hear that you have made millions for you and your family in the coming years and that the Sackmaster 2000 has helped save lives and property as you hope it will.