Whose Idea Was the Dry-Cleaning Bag Anyway?
By AMY WALLACE
LAST month’s Prototype column — about a company that makes reusable dry-cleaning bags — began: “Man or woman, every one of us has experienced the frustration that drove Rick Siegel to become an inventor.”
The day it appeared, with a picture of Mr. Siegel, his wife, Jennie Nigrosh, and their product, the Green Garmento, I heard from another Los Angeles inventor, Jane Wyler. She was plenty frustrated with Mr. Siegel.
It turns out that Ms. Wyler, whose company is called Reuseniks, met Mr. Siegel in 2008 when he and his wife approached her at a trade show. The couple told Ms. Wyler that they were blown away by her reusable dry-cleaning bag, the Clothesnik. After buying two, they asked to meet to discuss investing in her company.
Ultimately, Ms. Wyler opted not to team up with them, but not before Mr. Siegel sent an e-mail message to her and her business partner, Rich Leivenberg, in April 2008, titled “WE LIKE REUSENIKS.” “The reason we want to be so involved in your company,” the message said, was because of how easily the Clothesnik “could be replicated by potential competitors.”
If a more muscular competitor were to emerge, Mr. Siegel continued, it could “undermine your uniqueness and reap the available rewards.” Ask Ms. Wyler today, and she says that Mr. Siegel was absolutely right — and that he has been undermining and reaping ever since. “Can you believe this guy?” she asks. “He stole our idea.”
Au contraire, Mr. Siegel says. Click to continue »
