If you build a better mousetrap, you'll wind up attracting mice.

Years ago, a buddy of mine was watching another buddy work on his truck, and he noted all the time the guy spent scooching out from under the thing to fetch various tools. My buddy flashed on a way to make portable tools presentable -- seems like most great inventions come this way -- and the long story had begun.

Now he has to find a way to write the ending.

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This magazine article got hijacked, waylaid. The plan was to help this guy out with a seriously nice web layout, complete with expanded diagrams and a list of superlatives and some clever marketing spins and the whole bit. And then I learned I couldn't do it, because in advertising it to the world, I was setting him up to get ripped off blind.

We can sum up the world of patent law in one line from a current TV commercial. There's a new toothbrush out that has 23 separate patents. Now it's hard to imagine how anal some lawyer would have to be to find 23 distinct things to patent on a toothbrush, though I have this vague discomfort that some of the handle ridges may double as adult novelties.

Now you may ask why I'd get involved in such a thing anyway, and there are three reasons. First, my buddy once got me out of jail, which is a unique bonding experience. Secondly, in more proof that Richmond is the world's biggest small town, I now own the truck which started it all.

But the most important reason is the most simple.

This product rocks.

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Here's a writer's challenge -- tout a product without giving away its simple secret. So let me begin with the computer term -- extensible -- and say this product has applications for painters, carpenters, gardeners, auto mechanics and Harriet Homeowner. Let me say it's compact, affordable and just plain ingenious.

And now here's the inventor's challenge. How do you drum up interest from manufacturers, et al, while making sure some fly-by-night marketer does not take your idea, gussy it up like the 23-patent toothbrush, and laugh all the way to the bank. You'd think dropping a couple of grand on a patent would offer plenty of protection. You'd be wrong.

"Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door" used to be the saying. Nowdays, however, you have to worry about MicroMouseTrapSoft winding up owning the mousetrap, the path and your door.

So this great idea must be slowly and carefully marketed. And all the while, the Christmas retail season beckons in the distance. The clock is ticking.

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I've long urged my buddy to turn his invention into a cottage industry. I point out that what got Dave Matthews over the hump, got him from playing for beer in Richmond dives to megastar status, was his small-label CD's. The big record company that eventually signed him wasn't so much impressed with his music as the fact he'd been moving the product, which we all know to be the mantra of '90s.

Inventors, by their very nature, don't think this way, My buddy doesn't want to run a company. He wants to think for a living.

"I've got to get this thing sold and out of the way," he told me the other day. "I've got lots of other ideas to get to."

Which sure makes me glad that Edison lived in a far simpler time.

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