Nearly 12 million Americans create or modify products they use at home, according to our research. But the vast majority – more than 90 percent – will never get a patent on their innovations. So what motivates them?
The innovators we studied (their innovations may or may not meet the criteria for inventions) are user innovators – a very different breed than independent inventors.
User innovators are motivated to create a new product in order to use it rather than to sell it, and they are generally very successful at accomplishing what they set out to do. They are justifying their investment in inventive activities based upon the satisfaction they get from the use of their products.
To read the full, original article click on this link: America's 12 Million Amateur Innovators : Planet Money : NPR
