Nicos Raftis
CEO, IP Research Ltd
Nicos Raftis is an expert in intellectual property, creativity and competence development and inventive problem solving. He is a manufacturing engineering graduate from Cambridge University and a Chartered Engineer. He started his career as an inventor and entrepreneur having established a technology company to develop and manufacture various systems for hyperbaric applications, even while he was still doing his Masters degree. After selling the intellectual rights for those technologies, he worked as a consultant for a venture capital company. He was then one of the founders of a successful new product development and design management company working for clients in Europe and S.E. Asia. He has managed several large scale design projects. After 2000 he focused his attention on research on enhancing creativity in new product development and in 2001 went back to Cambridge for a PhD. Since 2006 he has been the director of IP Research Ltd, offering specialist services in support of technology and product development. They provide in-dept representation of the current state of the art through the analysis of patents and scientific publications. He has been on the board of a number of organisations including recently Hellenic Bank Investments. He is a past president of Junior Chamber Cyprus.
Specialties
Intellectual property, patents, inventive problem solving
Patents
Toothbrush with a vibrating head part
United Kingdom Patent WO2006109077 (A9)
Inventors: Nicos Raftis
The present invention relates to a toothbrush having a head utilising a vibrating device for the generation of motion contained within the head and fixed directly on the top part of the head having bristles, the top part of the head with the electromechanical device being connected to a lower part or a side part of the head through a flexible part, and the lower part or side part of the head being connected to the neck and handle such that the energy of vibration is focused on the top part which can move relative to the neck part with only minimal vibration being transmitted to the toothbrush handle. The invention provides a toothbrush head whereby the entire mechanism for motion generation is contained within the head with all energy of the motion generating device being concentrated on the tufted part of the head, while the size of the toothbrush can correspond roughly to the size of manual toothbrushes and flexibility is provided for the design of the neck and handle.
5 contactsIP Research Ltd serves the engineering design and product development community by providing an in-depth representation of prior art. We guide clients to re-define and explore technological problems and answer key questions such as:
- What is the maturity of a technology
- What are promising and competing technologies that are evolving?
- What are the general technological trends?
- What are alternative means of satisfying a specific function?
- What are the functional structures of existing technologies?
- What design parameters are used to satisfy these functions?
- What technological problems did others try to solve?
- What is a valid design concept lexicon from relevant domains that I can utilise to generate new ideas?
- What other domains are relevant and how can I transfer ideas from those domains?
- How are competing technologies evolving over time?
- In what conceptual direction is competition moving?
Design teams need answers to specific questions. They need clear abstracted concepts at multiple levels of abstraction to use as sources for inspiration. Design teams do not need more data.
IP Research Ltd penetrates patent documents and scientific publications beyond the surface, to the level of meaningful concepts to provide what the designers need. Customers find that our services provide a cost-effective boost to their design productivity and bring a fresh perspective that enhances the creativity of their own team.