New Open Innovation Marketplace Connects Connects Inventors With the Problems They Can Solve

Planet Eureka started its beta test. Free open innovation service for SMEs.

In its upcoming issue, Information Week reports about a new online marketplace for open innovation. The site is devoted to helping people with solutions find problems. As Marianne Kolbasuk McGee reports in her article, Planet Eureka lets an inventor post an idea in hopes of finding a company interested in using it to solve its own problem or in bringing it to market to solve others' problems. The new site aims to match inventors with small and midsize businesses.

Thus, Planet Eureka turns the idea of Innocentive upside-down (Innocentive posts problems) and is much closer to the conventional patent / invention databases.

"There are thousands of inventors wanting to commercialize their ideas, but it's hard to get a potential manufacturer," says Ken Bloemer, president of Eureka's innovation group.

Many small and midsize businesses also lack deep R&D resources but are looking for great new ideas, he says. Those companies will get first dibs at Planet Eureka. Only small and midsize companies can view ideas during their first 100 days posted on the site. But after that, any company can access them.

Access is free to sellers and buyers. But the company charges for services it provides inventors, such as workshops on how to write descriptions of ideas that tell potential investors quickly what the invention is about without forcing them to trudge through patent abstracts. Inventors can also use Planet Eureka's Merwyn software, which Bloemer says can assess the probability of an invention or idea's success based on its written description.

Planet Eureka isn't the first Web site to traffic in ideas. Open innovation marketplaces have been matching businesses that have problems with people who have promising solutions for several years. Similar services are:

INNOCENTIVE: Connects companies, nonprofits, and government agencies looking for solutions to problems with people and organizations that have answers. Charges $15,000 to post a problem as well as 40% commission on amount paid to the solution provider.

NINE SIGMA: Prepares and posts RFPs for companies and others seeking solutions to problems. Charges fees for all services.

Context: Read the full Information week article here.