Two years ago, Jersey City resident Kairi Jeffries was working as a bartender in Manhattan when the idea for the Drain Scoop first occurred to him.
“The place was filled with people,” Jeffries explained. “And when people don’t get their drinks fast enough, they can be difficult.”
What was slowing the drink dispensing process for Jeffries and his co-workers was the need to drain the water that regular ice scoops dumped into glasses.
“The water from the melted ice also diluted the drinks,” Jeffries said. “Put in all that water in a martini, for instance, and you won’t taste the martini.”
Jeffries mentioned to a co-worker that ice scoops should have drains to allow the water to escape before ending up in the glass. It was another year before he did anything about it.
“I had the idea and then it slipped away,” said Jeffries. “People miss out on a lot of opportunities by procrastinating.”
Jeffries, a three-year resident of First Street by way of Detroit and New York City, finally did act on his idea a year later and created the Drain Scoop, an ice scoop with four slots that allows water to drain from ice before it reaches the drink. A few months ago, Jeffries received patent protection on his design.
“I’ve had the ‘patent pending’ for four months,” said Jeffries. “Right now, I’m six months ahead of schedule on completing the patent.”
Jeffries’ invention features four slots cut in the Drain Scoop. The “essential slot,” as Jeffries described it, is located at the back of the scoop, positioned at an angle.
“The essential slot lets most of the water escape from the scoop,” Jeffries said. “There are three auxiliary slots in the front so that any water that doesn’t drain from the back, gets caught in the front of the scoop. It seems so simple in retrospect, I can’t believe no one thought of it before.”
Jeffries executed a patent search a little more than a year ago, and the search came up with no designs like his. ‘I was so happy when the news came back that no else had came up with the ice scoop,” said Jeffries.
“I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit,” Jeffries added. “So I took all the money I had saved up from bartending and modeling work and did the patent search.”
Long search process
v Jeffries said he was committed to his invention, since he paid $1,500 for the search to be done by an invention development company.
“It was a long process, but I didn’t lose hope,” Jeffries explained. “The patent search process took about four months and sometimes I was wondering what was going on.”
Along with his business partners, Jeffries has formed a company called “Drain Scoop, LLC,” under which he was granted the patent.
Since receiving the patent pending status on the Drain Scoop, Jeffries has been presenting his invention at food industry conventions in New York City.
“Ninety percent of the manufacturers of utensils for the food and bar industry showed a lot of interest,” said Jeffries. While in New York promoting his invention, Jeffries received criticism from a food industry representative.
“He said that he could copy my invention instead of licensing it,” said Jeffries. “That would be difficult since patent law would apply to a design for a scoop that came close to mine.”
The food industry representative also suggested that the slots in the scoop design could simply be changed into holes, but Jeffries believes water is more likely to be caught in holes than in slots.
Before arriving on the East Coast, Jeffries had bowled professionally in Michigan.
“I bowled with a team in Detroit seven days a week,” said Jeffries, adding that his team was All-State in 1998 and in the same year won the Molson Open Bowling Tournament. However, Jeffries left the professional bowling competitions for a number of reasons.
“I didn’t like the way the game was going,” Jeffries stated. “The manufacturers were making the bowling balls differently, making it easier for people to have a better game. People were doing better than they really have the talent for.”
Also, Jeffries’ modeling career began to thrive, so he decided to move to New York City.
“I lived in New York for awhile and then moved to Hoboken,” said Jeffries. “I like it here in Jersey City, however. There is room for my car, and the neighborhood is pretty quiet. Plus, I’m close to New York City where I work.”
Jeffries expects to have a full patent on his invention by April of this year.
“I would tell anyone with an idea for something new to work on it immediately,” said Jeffries. “If you hesitate, you could miss out.”