Chapter 13

As the conversation started to get repetitive, Mum brought out two letters for me.

The first was from the International Oil Rig and Drillers Union. Actually, it was a copy of a letter they had sent to the International Seamen’s Union. One handy thing it had the address of the Seamen’s Union hiring hall in New York City so that was one obstacle that had been overcome.

They relayed the information to the ISU that I was a member in good standing with the IORD and performed satisfactorily on all jobs that I had been sent on.

That was an interesting way to word it. I had only been on one job for them and it had only lasted for several weeks. I guess they take care of their members. I had only sent the letter to them on Monday and had a reply on Friday.

The second was from the patent attorney Mr. Christensen. He had a signed receipt from the patent office and acknowledgment letter for the Document Disclosure letter we had submitted.

He had included seven copies of each document. I would be keeping one and sending the others with my business proposal to the major manufacturers.

He had also reviewed and approved the letter I intended to send to the showerhead companies. It described the patent application that had been submitted, the design for sale and proposed license fees. We were in business!

All my problems forgotten, I headed to the basement. As part of my typing practice, I had typed up letters to Delta, Moen, Pfister, Kohler, American Standard and Detroit faucets. I then had our attorney Mr. Burke review and sign as Corporate Attorney.

I also signed as President of Jackson Engineering and Dad as Chief Executive Officer. This way my legal guardian had countersigned without telling the companies that it was a kid they were dealing with.

Each letter was addressed to the Head of Business Development at the respective companies. We didn’t even know if that title existed at any of them, but it would get the letters to the correct people.

I couldn’t wait. Dad let me drive us down to the post office where I mailed the letters with a return receipt requested. That way we would have evidence that the company had received the information.

As Mr. Christensen had explained in his letter we had to do that. Each company would turn the design over to their engineering group to see if they could achieve an adjustable shower head without violating my patent. He didn’t see how it was possible, but it was good business on their part to check out the possibilities.

Once they found out they couldn’t get around the patent they would then have a business decision to make. Was there a market for this device? What should they pay for this? In my letter, I had indicated that it wouldn’t be an exclusive license.

That meant that one of their competitors might be selling the product. They would have to decide if they could afford to fall behind in the marketplace. The other thought was that by having multiple licensees it would make my negotiating position stronger with each of them.

I could walk away from any individual company if they were too far out of line on their offer.

Undoubtedly the various companies would want to meet. Dad would be handling that. He would go to their offices if need be. If they came to Bellefontaine, Tom Donaldson had agreed that they could meet at his shop and he would have all the parts that had been made on display.

It would be explained that they were the prototype shop and that Jackson Engineering worked out of our home address. I would probably be in California when this all occurred so they may never know they had been dealing with a teenager.

After discussions with our Attorneys and a phone call to Mr. King, Judy’s dad and head of the Western Electric plant in Columbus, I decided to ask for an upfront fee of ten thousand dollars and ten percent of gross sales.

The upfront money was firm. The gross sales were negotiable and Mr. King told me I should be happy with anything over five percent. The Donaldson’s were satisfied with this. As minority partners in this project if all six companies bought in they would receive ten percent of the upfront money. This would give them each almost a year’s salary, and though they had helped a lot it was more than generous.

When it came time for Spanish I pestered Mrs. Hernandez for some new words, like profit, loss, residuals, taxes and any other capitalist term I could think of.

She laughed at me and said, “I don’t think Senior Castro would like you.”

I didn’t think I liked him so we were even.

I was too wound up for serious reading so I reread Tom Swift and his Motorcycle. I could relate to my fellow inventor. Though I thought his life as portrayed was a little unrealistic.

Saturday morning started out normal. That lasted until I came back from my run. The weather was okay, it was dull out, low overcast and cold, the high twenties. I took my shower drying my hair with my new hairdryer. I did manage to find some leather to wrap the handle from an old scout project.

As I was eating Mum told me.

“After breakfast go put on your best suit and tie.”