Making the World Safer,
One Prophylactic at a Time
Editor’s note: First Person is a periodic feature written by inventors, for inventors.
By William Mistler
I invented the O-RING Condom – the main product of my start-up company of the same name.
As a former assistant engineering professor at Penn State University some years ago and now a student at the University of Oslo pursuing a masters in innovation and entrepreneurship, I have always liked to solve problems and have always been creative.
I had read about problems associated with putting on condoms correctly, but hadn’t ever really given it much thought. Only when I heard some acquaintances complain about it a few years ago did I start to think of potential solutions.
Initially, I thought if someone could solve this problem, it could enhance sex education by convincing more people to use condoms. A few weeks later in the summer of 2007, I came up with the original idea. I was issued U.S. utility Patent No. 7,673,632 on March 9, 2010. I also have officially trademarked my product the O-RING Condom.
This invention has any type of indicia on the underside of the condom in the rolled configuration to help proper use – daytime or nighttime. These indicia can be visual in the form of a fluorescent ring, tactile in the form of raised bumps, or any other type of marking aiding in the direction and orientation of a condom for the user.
The market is lucrative, as many emerging nations are relaxing cultural resistance to sexual reproductive and orientation issues. Gobon, the largest condom manufacture in China, for instance, produced some 710 million last year, according to China Daily. Around half of those condoms were exported to Africa, Europe and the United States. Overall, China produced about six billion condoms in 2009.
Patent No. 7,673,632
The abstract of my patent reads:
“The present invention discloses a condom having indicia disposed on the lower side of the roll when the condom is in the rolled configuration. Preferably, the indicia is a fluorescent marking or raised bumps disposed on the inner side of the condom disposed at a location so that, when the condom is in the rolled configuration, the indicia is visible and/or tactilely sensitive from the lower side only. More preferably, the indicia is a ring-shaped marking extending about the inner side of the tubular body. In this configuration, a user holding the condom can easily determine which is the upper side of the roll and which is the lower side of the roll. The user may then quickly orient the condom with the lower side facing toward the penis and unroll the condom in the proper direction.”
O-RING Condom, LLC
My goals as an inventor and manager of O-RING Condom LLC are twofold: 1) to help promote safe sex practices among the general population and 2) educate the younger generation about the importance of using condoms, while providing them with an easy-to-use prophylactic at approximately the same cost as conventional condoms.
I am getting an O-RING Condom prototype made with German manufacturer Richter Rubber Inc. I hope to have product on the shelves by the third quarter of 2010 in the United States and parts of Europe, with future expansion to other parts of the world.
I have not aggressively sought any third-party investors yet. I am putting my own money on the table, as I strongly believe in the product. However, I could get some funding if needed.
Ultimately, I hope to make the O-RING Condom a standard in the industry. The O-RING can be put on correctly with greater ease than competing brands.
This would 1) help reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and 2) help convince those who don’t use condoms that they are easy to use and can be easily put on the right way the first time.
Instead of those awkward moments fumbling around to put on the condom correctly, e.g. while turning on the light, use of the O-RING Condom is very simple.
The product will be sold at a very similar price to what a regular condom costs, due to the fact that the manufacturing process is very similar to that of a regular condom.
I’ve got several other patents pending for this idea, which could lead to more product introductions in the future … but we will leave those for another time!
Visit www.o-ringcondom.com
Editor’s note: This article appears in the June 2010 print edition.
