EVER HAD an idea that you thought would make parents’ lives much easier, but not known how to develop it? A woman in the US has set up a company that helps mothers to turn inventions into business success stories. Today The Times announces a similar initiative for British mothers, and one lucky reader will win a chance to have a patent application for her invention paid for by The Times.

Readers should write in and outline, in no more than two A4 pages, what their idea is, how it works and why it would be useful to parents. Entries will be judged by a panel on the basis of their novelty, viability as business ideas, usefulness to parents and likelihood of attracting a patent. The Times will then arrange for a patent application to be drafted on behalf of the winner. Securing a patent does not ensure business success, but it is a significant step in the right direction. We can’t guarantee that the winner will obtain a patent, but the advice of a qualified patent attorney should help. Entries may include a diagram. Entrants must be mothers with children under 18.

Entries should be sent to Mothers of Invention, PO Box 6162, Basildon, Essex SS14 3GF, or mothersofinvention@thetimes.co.uk

The panel will include Chrissie Rucker, the founder of The White Company, Bruce Alexander, a patent attorney, and Robert Thomson, the Editor of The Times. Remember: keep your idea confidential.

WHEN ten-month-old Sophia Monosoff unravelled the toilet roll in the family bathroom her mother Tamara thought it was funny. “But when the toilet became clogged and there were shreds of paper all over the house it started to lose its charm. I went to the local stores to find something to stop her doing it, but there was nothing.

“People said ‘Just put your toilet paper in the cabinet and wait till she grows out of it’.” A former White House staffer, Tamara Monosoff is not the sort of woman to take no for an answer. “When I realised it did not exist I thought ‘I’ll make one myself”.

She made a prototype of a clip to secure the paper, hired a marketing company, got a patent and engaged the services of a manufacturing plant in China. It was a long and difficult process, but in August 2003, the TP Saver (Toilet Paper Saver) was launched and became an instant success.

Monosoff was soon invited on CNN and talk shows; as a result, her website received almost a million hits. Amazingly, 95 per cent were not people desperate to get their hands on a TP Saver, but mothers who had product ideas of their own but were daunted by the prospect of how to do anything about them. So she launched Mom Inventors. “I thought, wouldn’t it be great to have a road map, a way to help mums, because it is hard. There is nothing directed specifically to mothers, who are juggling all these different things.” Now, instead of floundering through uncharted territory, as she did, mothers can turn to her website, www.mominventors.com, and find free advice on how to get started. Or, if a woman doesn’t want that hassle, Monosoff will consider licensing the idea from her with an agreement to pay royalties.

“Mothers are incredible problem solvers,” says Monosoff, 39. “There’s a lot of untapped intelligence out there. Many mothers have been out in the career world and have phenomenal skills. They don’t just turn it off when they become mothers. If you’re juggling three kids, you become a creative person. You have to.”

We are in the bathroom of her pretty bungalow in Walnut Creek, a small town near San Francisco, and Monosoff is demonstrating the TP Saver. She is sitting on the toilet seat, attaching the device. Her daughter Sophia, 3, is dancing around in a pink dress and ballet shoes. “It was me, it was me,” she sings. Monosoff pushes the white tube through the toilet roll: “You insert it, pull the elastic round and lock it. There!” she says triumphantly, twirling the paper round, like a child might. None of it comes loose.

As a mother myself, who has twice had to pay a plumber $100 (£54) to unclog the toilet after my two small boys heaped paper into it, I am more than happy to part with $5.99 to buy the device. I am not alone. So far, 30,000 TP Savers have been sold and Monosoff projects sales of $2 million this year from this and other products. In the past few months she has also launched ideas from two other mothers: a gadget to remove sandwich crusts, and shoe-stickers that enable children to tell left from right. A further 300 ideas are sitting on her desk and she is sifting through them.Recently she was featured on the front of The Wall Street Journal.

Monosoff, who has Sophia and Kiara, 1, stopped breast-feeding only three weeks ago and is all too familiar with the battle of juggling children and work. “I used to go crazy waiting for nap time to make as many phone calls as possible. Once I had to make a critical call so I strapped Sophia in the back of the van and drove round till she fell asleep. When I finally spoke to the executive, who was sitting at his mahogany table in his beautiful office, I had smashed bean and cheese burrito from Sophia’s lunch on my legs and a poopy diaper sat among my papers. And you’re dealing with people who have had a full eight hours of sleep. I was up four times last night.”

On another occasion she took Sophia to a meeting with the president of a marketing company. “As I sat there talking about the concept of creating the website and logo design, I saw Sophia had pulled out the nappy cream and was rubbing it into the carpet. I dropped to the floor and began trying to clean it with wipes. But the effort to get to that meeting was so tremendous that I just kept on talking. And this woman sat stiffly in the chair and didn’t offer to help. I decided then that I would pick only people who could handle the complexity of having children to be part of my team.”

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