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By J.D. Houvener
Patent Attorney and Founder

Next in the tank is a way to save money on haircuts.

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Hello sharks, my name is Tony, and I’m from Derby, Connecticut. I’m here seeking twenty-five thousand dollars for 20% equity in my product, the HairFin. Sharks, as you probably already know, most home haircutters rely on hair clippers to cut hair evenly. These are great for cutting short hair, but these clipper combs only go up to about an inch, resulting in a bowl cut or the colander cut. If you don’t want one of those, you’re going to need a way to cut longer hair evenly.

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Measuring your hair as you cut it seems like an obvious solution, but if you’re holding your hair in one hand and you’re holding a measuring tape in your other hand, how are you going to cut it? What we need is a modern solution to this age-old problem. Introducing the HairFin, a measuring tool that molds to your hand and stays out of the way. You can grasp the hair, then, as you’re pulling the hair straight, you can slide the guide into place. Once the guide is in place, you can go ahead and trim any hair that comes out above your hand, knowing that you’re cutting it the right length. The HairFin is perfect for home haircutters. It comes with two, three, and four-inch long guides so you can do a multitude of haircuts. It takes the guesswork out of judging hair length because you can measure hair while holding it in place for the perfect cut. So sharks, who’s ready to make and shred some hair-cutting waves with the HairFin?

They’re from you metal. We’ll jump to the shark’s feedback and questions. I like it. I think that is super simple, easily. I mean, we’re talking to make all four of those a dollar, dollar fifty in manufacturing costs, right? Retail, 20 bucks, easy all day. Yeah, that’s a cool little product. I thought it was a cool product too. I think it fits up against the hair pretty well. It might be neat on the sides here are short for me but long, it would be kind of neat. I haven’t cut mine in a while. He tells a really funny story, but he’s a surfer, retired computer tech, did a lot of work there. It’s almost like a hobby for him, but they were cracking up. Not asking for a whole lot of money here, 25k. Yeah, no, I mean, low barrier to entry if you want to get in on that HairFin train. Yeah, I did want to show off; he is selling on Amazon, and I did look up; he did have a patent. Let’s take a quick look at that.

So, here is the product on Amazon. It’s still for sale right now; he’s still got his photo up for 15 bucks, and you almost nailed it. I think it’s actually a dollar and change to make. One thing I would say to give some critique here is on the actual product; you want to put patented, patented, and put the patent number right on there U.S Pat and then the number. He’s still pending, so he did a good job; you can see his sticker; you can see what you see right there, patent-pending, made in the USA on the box. It’s actually patented now, so we probably, my guess is he bought a bunch of these or took the photo years ago.

Yeah, but it was granted, so he’s got this patent here; this is granted in 2021. So it’s a Utility Patent, sweet. Yeah, he’s got a registered trademark too for hand tools, namely guides for trimming hair, class eight. And he should be using that registered trademark symbol there; there we go, right. And what is that registered trademark symbol? Is it the circle? The circle R means that you have a registered trademark; the U.S Patent Trademark Office means that you can enforce the trademark, litigate to, you know, it’s your card into the Federal District Court. It also kind of creates some additional liability for infringement. So there are some reasons why you would want that, absolutely. And Amazon, to get that premiere page, you’ve got to be, yeah, that’s a good point.

Can you pull up his Amazon page again? Yep, let’s do it and kind of show the listeners and see kind of what the Amazon page looks like. So, these Amazon offers, what are called Amazon A+ Pages, yeah. He actually does not have one here. Okay, if you click on the brand, HairFin, let’s see what happens. Yeah, he does not. So, generally speaking, if you have a trademark registered at the United States Trademark Office, you sell on Amazon; you can go get Amazon brand registered and have access to really cool unique landing pages, flash pages on Amazon, where you can have all your products. You can have additional pictures, video content that could be displayed to your potential customers. I don’t know if you think he’s still involved in the business. You know, I don’t know; I mean, his picture’s still up there; I don’t know how active it is. I’m gonna see if let’s watch the end to see which shark bit if any. I think there was one; I think Damon, and that’s why I wanted to show this. One of our clients actually, Cut Buddy, Joshua Esnard is mentioned here by Damon, so I wanna, I wanna show that off here.

Circumstances like I like to mountain bike; I like to surf; I care a little bit but not too much about my hair, and I just need to get it cut the way I want to. The HairFin, when you care a little bit about your hair but not too much. Do you like Tony? You’re amazing. I don’t have a hair problem, very simple for me, cut my hair. I’ve seen you younger; you had hair; you would have used one of them younger. So, you’ve got forty-one thousand dollars in sales; it’s a fantastic margin. I mean, it’s a great business, but it’s just I don’t think it’s investable. I think it’s terrific for you. Yeah, I’m out. Damon. Damn it, David. Hey, man, I like them so much, and we’re close by; you’re in New York; I would love to have you come up, have some pizzas and beers with us, get your haircut. You know, Damon, you know, this is for you. I invested in the hair cutting device Cut Buddy. He got his deal on Andis, makes a good amount of money. I think it does about a million dollars a year in total; he has a good living. I’ll actually give you a deal. Yeah, I’ll give you a deal because I, well, reason being I’ll just put you with my Cut Buddy, yeah, and you guys can run the business. I’ll give you 25,000 for forty percent. This is what we’re gonna go through all the time when we’re talking. Nah, you have a lot of time in your hands; you’ve got a deal.

About the Author
J.D. Houvener is a Registered USPTO Patent Attorney who has a strong interest in helping entrepreneurs and businesses thrive. J.D. leverages his technical background in engineering and experience in the aerospace industry to provide businesses with a unique perspective on their patent needs. He works with clients who are serious about investing in their intellectual assets and provides counsel on how to capitalize their patents in the market. If you have any questions regarding this article or patents in general, consider contacting J.D. Houvener at https://boldip.com/contact/