Project Description

Retail & Promotional Products

Tech Tools

Select Brands: xRocker; Fellowes; ttools

Retailers: Best Buy; Staples; Target

ttools vs IDEO & Palm Computing | Hazz Design

Wired Best Pick: ttools Stylus Pens

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Inventors
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Patents
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Patent Battle
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Winners
Hookah Starter Pro | Hazz Design
ttools | Solovision Holographic Privacy SCreen | Hazz Design
Xela Case Keyboard | Hazz Design
ttools | Stylus Pens | Hazz Design
reVue TV Mount | Hazz Design

INVENTION BY DESIGN

The Challenge

Starting a company with one product, even if its a tech tool, can be dangerous even when that product is patented. In 2001, when Tom & Tracy Hazzard’s first company, ttools was faced with the world’s biggest Industrial Design firm, IDEO, and tech darling, Palm Computing infringing on that patent, everyone said their business was over. Instead, they got their team together and used their innovative thinking to put together a strategic and tactical battle plan on a shoestring budget.

ttools Patented Tech Tools Logo

The Solution

Fighting Palm Computing and IDEO was the only option, but it’s the how that shows Tom & Tracy’s interesting and unconventional solution-solving tactics. Their methods and the successful results are taught in an Entrepreneurship and Intellectual Property class at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business and at the Harvard Business Review at 26 other universities around the world. Their upcoming book on their tactics and how the experience changed their business practices today will be available on Amazon in March 2016.