The Baby Dipper Bowl has a unique design that allows for easy one-handed and self-feeding.  With a non-slip base, a deep, contoured interior, and spoon-shaped corner, caretakers and young kids can easily scoop pureed foods and cereals.  No more pushing the bowl around the tray or tipping it to the side to get to the food.  The shape of the bowl allows the user to scoop up food with ease.  Additionally, the Baby Dipper bowl is BPA, lead, and Phthalate free, which means that the only thing getting into your kid is the wholesome food that you prepare.

You can learn more about the Baby Dipper Bowl on their website and Facebook page.  You’ll also find them on Twitter!

Büti-bags doesn’t just make these cute cuffs.  They also have full line of attractive and versatile bags, clutches, and baby/toddler blankets and accessories that come in a full range of hip and stylish fabrics.  I’m totally loving their Bundle bag, which is made with a soft, polyester water-repellent lining and features multiple pockets and stretchy closure straps.

To learn more about Büti-bags’ products, visit their website or find them on Facebook!

Not just according to my boys.  Parents.com just ranked the Boston Museum of Science one of the top 10 in the country.

That’s one of the reasons that we are so lucky to live in this area.

Jessie took our SmartSeat to her mother’s house for a trial run.  Here’s what she had to say: “I was very impressed with how easy it was to put this on my moms chairs. They are rather large, and I didn’t have any problems getting the cover securely on . . .My mom was also impressed with the design and how well it protected her chairs. E ended up spilling his juice all over his lap. He was soaked, but the chair was fine! None of the juice managed to get through the waterproof cover, and because it completely covers the cushioned seat, it didn’t get on the sides either.”  Just click through to read Jessie’s full review.

SmartSeats are easy to carry with (just toss them in your bag) and you’ll always be a welcome guest at Grandma’s house!

This week, Mompact featured my SmartSeat Chair Protectors and a cool product called Le Bibble Baby Bottle Bib in a giveaway.

As part of that giveaway, several bloggers tried out our SmartSeat Chair Protectors with their families.  I’m so excited to report that they all loved them!

If you’d like to read the wonderful reviews, please click through on any of the links, below.  And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!  It ends this week.

Check out how nicely my SmartSeat Chair Protectors fit this chair!

Have a photo of our covers on your chairs?  We’d love to see it!

The Bumps, Babies, and Beyond Expo is coming up on March 25th in Stamford, CT.  We’ll be there and we’re hoping that you’ll join us if you’re in the area!

Now, normally, I wouldn’t give much thought to cookies, but this story seemed particularly poignant to me in light of some recent going-ons in the mompreneur community.  If you read my blog, you are aware that Prince Lionheart recently released a faucet extender very similar in design to a product manufactured by Peachy LLC called the Aquaduck.  The design of Prince Lionheart’s product is not only similar to that of the Aquaduck, the company also used Perachy’s photographs in creating the marketing materials for their competing product.

The facts of this story are still unfolding.  And I’m sure that there are facts on both sides that will never make it into the public forum until (or if) there is legal action in this case.  Publicly, Prince Lionheart has issued several statements on its Facebook page apologizing for the inappropriate use of Peachy’s photographs in creating their images and have apparently taken steps to remedy the situation.  They also have been quick to point out that, though the designs of the two products are similar, Peachy did not have a patent on the Aquaduck design, merely a pending application; that a pending application does not grant any intellectual property rights to the applicant; and, therefore, Prince Lionheart did not engaged in any illegal activity with respect to the design of the faucet extender.

According to a recent article, the number of women applying for patents has sky-rocketed in recent years.  And I can tell you that the reactions in the mom-inventor circles in which I travel demonstrate that what may be legal under intellectual property laws may not necessarily be, or at least may not seem, fair.

Ponder this.  Let’s say that you have a product idea that you’d like to bring to market.  You invest the time and money into seeking a patent on your idea.  Going this route costs you tens of thousands of dollars and several years.   Keep in mind that, as pointed out by Prince Lionheart in this instance, though you’ve filed for a patent, you have no rights until your patent has been officially approved and issued by the Patent and Trademark Office — a process that can take many years from the time of application until the point of approval.  That means that during the time that your application is pending, competitors can create a similar (if not identical product) and sell it, perhaps for less than you are, and leave  you without any legal recourse during this time.  Moreover, even if your patent issues at some point down the road, you’ll still need additional money to fund the litigation necessary to enforce your legal rights.  Sounds great, huh?

Alternatively, you skip the patent process and market the hell out of your idea, hoping to be the first to market with sufficient brand identity so that competitors who surface cannot steal a significant share of your market.  You hire the best PR that you can afford and invest in widespread advertising, both of which cost tens of thousands of dollars.  Then, once a market for your idea has been demonstrated, a larger company swoops in and creates a knock-off of your product that they can manufacture and sell for less (because they are producing their product in much higher volumes that you can afford to do).  They also use their existing customer base, marketing channels, and retail outlets to outsell you.  You don’t have a patent (remember, you spent all your  money on marketing), so you’re basically out of luck.  Another winning outcome, right?

Ideally, I suppose  you would have the means and the resources to do both: you’d file for a patent and market your product to the nth degree.  But in the real world, not many entrepreneurs have the ability to do this.  I know that I don’t.  And I’m fairly confident that many of the women in my entrepreneurial circles don’t either.  So I guess this all leaves me wondering whether there is still room in the marketplace for goods developed and manufactured by small businesses.  Can a small start up be successful in an environment where big box retail chains demand huge discounts, penalize with charge backs, and reserve key shelf space for the big boys (even those that are run by women)?  Is this all just a matter of fair competition in the open marketplace, as Prince Lionheart alludes to in the statements on their Facebook pages?  Perhaps, for small businesses such as Peachy LLC, this is really just the way the cookie crumbles.

So here’s what happened to Susanna.  Recently, another company released a product very similar in design to the Aquaduck.  You can see that the shape of the product is almost identical to the Aquaduck.  Now, we all know that sometimes necessity is the mother of invention and, of course, two people struggling with the same problem can come up with a similar solution.  It’s happened before in the mompreneur community (even with seat covers like mine) and will certainly happen again.

However, what I find most shocking in this instance isn’t the similarity of the products (though they are similar).  What I find most shocking is the accompanying artwork.   Look how strikingly similar it is to Susanna’s photograph.   That isn’t an artistic rendition of a stock photo:   It is an artistic rendition of a photograph taken of Susanna’s friend’s son washing his chubby little hands.  A photo taken specifically for Susanna during a private photo shoot.

Now, I’m not saying that the competing product is a copy of the Aquaduck, nor am I saying that they used Susanna’s artwork in creating their ad campaign.  Frankly, these issues are not for me to decide.   However, I do very much hope that, as a small entrepreneur with limited funds, Susanna is able to get the answers to these questions in some legitimate forum.  Like many of us, she poured not just her heart and soul into her growing business, but her own money too.  And because of the way that the patent system is structured, she has no legal rights until the patent on her product is issued.  Even then, the piece of paper is only as good as the resources that she has to enforce it.  If that is the case, where does this leave little companies like hers (and mine) whose products may be knocked off by larger, more established companies under the assumption that there is really nothing that the smaller companies can do?

If you’re interested in learning more about Susanna’s situation and accompanying fallout, visit Meagan Paullin’s blog, Sunshine and Sippy Cups.  Meagan is a huge supporter of mom-inventors and is working closely with Mompact, a consortium of mompreneurs working together to promote their products.  Meagan recently posted an interesting article about what happened when she and some other supporters of Susanna tried to comment on this competitor’s facebook page about the new product and the similarities.

It will be interesting to see how this situation is handled, both by Susanna and the larger company.  I’ll be watching.  And I know that mompreneurs around the country will be watching too.