“They would look at it, peel it off and play with it, and then go out and buy a pad for themselves.” “It was always a self-advertising product because customers would put the notes on documents they sent to others, arousing the recipient’s curiosity,” Fry said. This time, the success was immediate thanks to the product’s ease of use and ability to promote itself. ![]() Though not everyone in the company saw value in the idea, Fry and his team continued to advocate for their product and in 1977, the removable notes were released in four cities under the name “Press n’ Peel.”Īt first, the reception was lukewarm, but thanks to a massive marketing effort that placed the notes directly into the hands of consumers, paired with a rebranding campaign that produced the now iconic “Post-it Note” name, on April 6, 1980, Post-It Notes launched across the United States. Within 3M, their team began writing messages to one another using prototype notes and collectively realized that they were on to something big. “Well, it turned out that they weren’t just bookmarks - they were really handy for self-attaching notes, labels and tapes.”įry’s realization that Silver’s adhesive microspheres were perfect for creating temporary notes would prove revolutionary. “So I made the bookmarks,” Fry said in an interview with NIHF. Immediately he thought back to a presentation he heard Silver give about his new microsphere adhesives. However, the buildup of dirt and dust on the board itself made this idea unfeasible.Įverything changed in 1974, when NIHF Inductee Art Fry, a new product development researcher at 3M, was singing one night at church and wondered if he could make a bookmark that would stick to his hymnal but not damage the page after removing it. “There was a bunch of them, but none of them were really that big or big enough to pursue, other than in a trivial way.”įive years later, in 1973, a change in management within 3M allowed Silver to prototype a reusable bulletin board. “I’d spun my wheels a long time trying to find a product I could put my adhesive on,” Silver said in an interview with NIHF. ![]() While Silver’s reusable adhesive was undoubtedly unique, many within 3M doubted it could be used to create a viable product. Instead, these indestructible acrylic spheres were “strong enough to hold papers together but weak enough to allow the papers to be pulled apart again without being torn.” Additionally, the adhesive’s properties allowed it to be reused without leaving behind any type of residue. However, the sticky “microspheres” he invented were neither very strong nor permanent. At first, however, his findings did not appear promising.Īs a senior scientist working for 3M, Silver was tasked with developing new, stronger adhesives. ![]() In 1968, National Inventors Hall of Fame® (NIHF) Inductee Spencer Silver made a discovery that led to one of the most successful office supply products in history. Co-invented by National Inventors Hall of Fame ® (NIHF) Inductees Art Fry and Spencer Silver, the Post-it Note would go on to become commonly used in offices around the world.īelow is an excerpt from our white paper, “The Power of Intellectual Property Triangulation,” that begins with the story of how these two Inductees worked together to invent the Post-it Note. ![]() The earning combination of a design patent, a utility patent and a trademark - ensure maximum protection.Īspects of this strategy were used by 3M when marketing the Post-it ® Note. While it is common practice for companies to apply for intellectual property protections when marketing a product, those able to use an Intellectual Property Triangulation ® strategy.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |