Davison Design & Development, formerly Davison & Associates[1] and often referred to as simply Davison, is an invention promotion firm based in Pittsburgh and founded in 1989 by George McConnell Davison. With 250 employees, Davison provides new product development services to corporate clients, entrepreneurs and individual inventors. Davison’s workplace, Inventionland, has been likened to The Willy Wonka Candy Company and is noted for its 16 life-sized themed sets, including a motor speedway, sewing cottage, cupcake, log cabin and others.[2]
In 2006, Davison were ordered to pay $26 million in consumer redress for misrepresenting its services to inventors, but ultimately reached a $10.7 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in 2008.
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Davison provides new product development services to inventors, corporations and entrepreneurs and has created a nine-step process for bringing new products and inventions to market.[3] Founder and CEO George M. Davison’s motto is “Dare to invent.”[4]
Davison-designed products include the Hover Creeper, Meatball Baker, Bread It breading stations, the BikeBoard, Pugz Shoes and the HydroBone for dogs and the 360° Wrist Therapy Brace. Davison produces approximately 200 prototypes per month, and its products have been sold in 1,000 retail stores and online venues.[5]
Davison, which employs 250 people, contracts directly with individual inventors and entrepreneurs to develop their ideas into product samples. Davison services include research, industrial design, virtual reality, video, animation, product prototypes, packaging, presentation to manufacturers and royalty management.[6]
The firm has received several International Design Excellence Awards from the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), formerly sponsored by I.D. Magazine and BusinessWeek, now sponsored by the Annual Design Review[7] online only via F+W Media. For example, the firm received an honorable mention in I.D. Magazine's 2007 design review competition.[8]
In 1986, George M. Davison graduated from college and then spent two years developing his first invention, a product to sanitize toothbrushes. A large corporation beat him to market, and it was then he determined that he needed a system to bring products to market quickly and in a competitive manner. In 1989 he founded Davison.
Part of the challenge in inventing new products, he came to understand, was that manufacturers don’t buy ideas but rather products developed, packaged and ready for manufacturing. If an inventor patents an idea through the United States Patent and Trademark Office, it may be useless if the product is ultimately changed or altered from the original patent idea. Davison came to believe that one should patent one’s ideas only after the product had been researched, tweaked, tested and prototyped, making it ready for manufacturing.
Since founding his company in 1989, George M. Davison has honed his nine-step inventing method based on his past experiences with inventing and with his understanding of how inventions come to market.[9]
Inventionland is a 61,000-square-foot (5,700 m2) design facility that houses 16 themed sets, including a pirate ship, tree house and giant robot.[10] Within Inventionland, which opened in 2006, Davison’s creative teams work to develop new consumer products and inventions. Types of goods include automotive, holiday, kitchenwares, children's and babies' products, pet products, consumer electronics (audio and video), hunting, fishing and sporting goods and others.[11]
2011 Creative Rooms in Business (CRIB) Award
Steel Heart Award
IDEA 2008 Annual Design Review – Honorable Mention, Consumer Products
IDEA 2007 Annual Design Review – Honorable Mention, Concepts
IDEA Silver Annual Design Award 2006
IDEA Bronze Annual Design Award 2006
IDEA Bronze Annual Design Award 1996
In 1997, Davison was one of eleven companies named in a Federal Trade Commission consumer protection operation called "Project Mousetrap".[19] In 2006, Davison were ordered to pay $26 million in consumer redress for misrepresenting its services to inventors and the FTC said Davison were typical of typical of invention promotion scams.[20][21]
Davison appealed, and ultimately settled with the FTC in 2008, agreeing to pay $10.7 million in cash, real estate and investment assets.[22] The judge in the case further required an "affirmative disclosure statement" to be issued to future clients. The disclosure statement specifies, among other things, the number of consumers in the last five years who have made more income in royalties or sales proceeds than they paid the company.[23] As of 25 October 2011, the court-ordered statement on the company's Web site states that 14 people have earned royalties greater than Davison's fees out of 326,962 who were offered a pre-development agreement or similar contract.[24]