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Mansfield Tanick & Cohen Attorneys Participate in the 53rd Annual Minnesota Inventors Congress Invention & Idea Show

So what do enterprising and entrepreneurial business attorneys do on weekends or their days off? Golf, go boating? Maybe, but not this last weekend as two of our firm's partners, Earl H. Cohen and Greg B. Perleberg, drove to Redwood Falls, Minnesota to attend and participate in the Minnesota Inventors Congress 53rd Annual Invention & Idea Show. The firm's friend and new client, Deborah Yungner, founder and president of ERBUS, Inc. told Mr. Cohen that her company and invention was to be showcased at the Invention & Idea Show and he had to be there.

First, a little about Deb. She is clearly an amazing inventor and entrepreneur. Her company, ERBUS, which stands for Emergency Response Back Up System, produces a large, elegant, towable piece of equipment that provides emergency responders with electrical power, purified water, heating and air conditioning, lighting and a shelter fully erected in less than 4 minutes. Deb has invented and brought this important, innovative equipment to market in a remarkably short time. We urge you to see for yourself in a short video at http://www.erbusinc.com/. It won't be long before every emergency response team in the world has this equipment.

According to Deb Hess, the Executive Director of the Minnesota Inventors Congress, the Invention & Idea Show was small as compared to past years, but drew a variety of important inventor participants. Awards were given based upon a competitive assessment by a panel of independent judges with technical, marketing and manufacturing experience and the Maynard Speece Memorial award was given to the inventor drawing the most votes from the public attendees. As an aside, you may remember Maynard Speece as the Farm Service Director and early morning voice of WCCO radio in Minneapolis, bringing to the radio airwaves the voices of the agricultural and business leaders of Greater Minnesota.

The inventions included a high-tech concrete curing management system, a portable watering device/garden sprayer, a foldable pontoon boat, a jewelry organizing system, among others, and Greg and Earl's two favorites, a backup system for emergency vehicles (ambulances and fire trucks) to help avoid vehicle accidents and a completely new exercise device developed for NASA to be used in a zero gravity environment. It's amazing what this device does in Earth's gravity.

The two-day program included Inventing Success tm Workshops on new product design and development, patents, licensing, business development, funding and a variety of related topics. Mansfield Tanick & Cohen's Incubation Center expects to participate at a higher level and provide programming at next year's event on business organization, networking and important tips for business success.

The event, conducted successfully for the past 53 years, clearly demonstrates that innovation is alive and well in Minnesota. Our firm urges the entire Minnesota business community to attend and support the Minnesota Inventors Congress. Our firm will be back!