The Ponca City real estate agent then came back to Oklahoma and built his own, something he calls the OUT Tool, an acronym for Open Up Tool.
“I thought a pistol grip shape was more ergonomically friendly,” he told The Oklahoman.
Lawrence worked through several designs and prototypes before arriving at one that he presented to the New Product Development Center at Oklahoma State University, a nonprofit, state-funded service that helps inventors navigate the invention process through education, information and referrals.
Staff at the New Product Development Center took Lawrence’s product and evaluated it in the areas of engineering and design, manufacturing, marketability, competition and patentability.
With the center’s guidance, Lawrence eventually licensed his OUT Tool to Alliance Sports Groups of Texas which has a fishing product line called Quarrow. |
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