Lakeland man patents waterproof insulin pump

Source: The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla.倉Jan. 01--LAKELAND -- A tiring visit to a water park with his son and two granddaughters left Lakeland resident Mike Lemanski Sr. searching for a better way to combine his love of water with the reality of being on an insulin pump.He enjoyed getting wet with Chris, Abby and Lilly, but it was a "hassle" to walk back and forth to the locker in which he stored his pump.Lemanski, who formerly worked with Piper Aircraft, resolved to design a waterproof case for an insulin pump that would be about the size of a cellphone."It's not just for me," said Lemanski, 61."It's for other people and kids with pumps."About 1.3 million people in the United States have type 1 diabetes, the type he has, previously called insulin-dependent diabetes. One in five people who have it use insulin pumps, a 2010 study said.Until he started the process, however, he didn't know how complicated getting the pump case out to the public would be.Almost 18 months after the water park trip, Lemanski has a design for the device and a patent. He spent close to $2,000 of his own money and about $10,000 from investors to get the patent and to start looking for manufacturers.Much of that involved contracting with a private company for engineering, drafting and patent services, promotional materials and submitting his information to potential manufacturers.His story and product are posted on a website, .forsaleby inventor.com, under medical devices, sports/recreation and miscellaneous.Hurdles remain, such as finding a manufacturer and raising manufacturing costs."I've learned a lot since I've been doing this," said Lemanski, who gets disability payments as a result of a neck injury that limits the use and strength of his hands."It's a lot of stress, but I'm learning every day."The company he uses has sent him information on 29 potential manufacturers, along with status reports. Some company responses say negativ24小時迷你倉, but most "still pending," with 21 more manufacturers to be contacted, he said.The best-case scenario, the Detroit native said, would be for a manufacturer to license the device, manufacture it and pay him royalties.Failing that, he'll go back to raising money from family and friends to get the work done, giving them shares in the investment in return."It should be on the market right now," he said. "I'd like at least a prototype."His $10,485 contract with Montgomery IP Associates involves the company getting a percentage of his profits, Lemanski said, but Mongomery won't get the percentage until he gets $10,000 from sales.Which is a major reason he's impatient to reach agreement with a manufacturer.Early in the process, the company checked patents on similar products and sent Lemanski information on them."Most of them are just bags," he said of the designs with other patents. "I tried that with baggies. It still got wet."Because of the other patents, the company advised him not to seek a patent until he added more novelty to make it stand out from others. He did that by including room in the case design for items such as identification cards or cash.Lemanski envisions the case being made of durable plastic, in a choice of transparent colors, with LED lighting.The patent came through in November.A patent gives an inventor the right to exclude others from making, using, importing, selling or offering to sell the invention for up to 20 years without the inventor's permission, according to the patent office."If I can get the prototype out there and prove it works, we can go from there," he said.___Robin Williams Adams can be reached at robin.adams@theledger.com or 863-802-7558. Read her blog at robinsrx.blogs.theledger.com. Follow on Twitter @ledgerROBIN.Copyright: ___ (c)2014 The Ledger (Lakeland, Fla.) Visit The Ledger (Lakeland, Fla.) at .theledger.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉旺角