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PVB inventor enjoys succes while seeking patent

Posted: July 11, 2012 - 9:02am
Don Meyns of Ponte Vedra Beach says his Love Bug Eraser has led to annual revenue in six figures

  DREW DIXON, Morris News Service
DREW DIXON, Morris News Service

Don Meyns has been working to get his Boss and Awesome products off the ground and churning profits for more than a decade.

At his Ponte Vedra Beach home Tuesday, he acknowledged he's still guarded about information connected to his Love Bug Eraser cleaning cloth because he has a patent pending for his invention. The Love Bug Eraser is similar to a cloth or sponge, but he says it's non-abrasive and takes the stains and gunk off everything from car windshields to boats.

Meyns declined to say what elements go into the making of the Love Bug Eraser.

The product not only dashes insect juice from a vehicle that has been through the worst of love bug seasons in Florida, it was used by the U.S. Coast Guard to assist in the cleanup of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Coast Guard wouldn't explain exactly how it used his product, Meyns said, but it placed an order for about $10,000 worth of the cleaning devices.

Meyns said he now makes six figures in annual revenue from the product that sells for $4.99 each or $9.98 for a pack of three on his website www.lovebugeraser.com. But Meyns declined to give a specific figure of how much revenue is generated from the product because he's worried about potential competitors gleaning too much information about his company before U.S. patents are finalized.

While he's been living in Ponte Vedra Beach for about 10 years, Meyns said he invented the Love Bug Eraser, also known as the Boss cleaner, while he was living in Roswell, Ga. But eventual success led him to move to the First Coast, where he enjoys his home near the Guana River preserve off Mickler Road.

Now that it's taking off, beyond product development, just as a businessman, how's that feel?

It's a great feeling. I just hope that I'm doing everything right. I feel that I am. I give it a lot of thought beforehand of how things will work out, a month, three months, six months and a year down the road.

You said you still have patents pending. And you seem like you're still guarded. Why is that such an edgy part of the evolution?

I am afraid of formidable competition at this point. ... There are so many products out there. There are other bug-removal products that are liquid, that are petroleum-based and are owned by very large companies. Those are very large and they can put a lot more advertising dollars into something than I can.

You're an inventor with a patent pending. How hard of a process is that to invent something and try to get a patent on it?

Probably the easier part is inventing it. The hard part is getting the patent because you have to show how your product is unique in that field from other products that are out there.

Not everybody goes for a patent every day. Does it take a lot of stamina?

It takes a lot of research. It takes a lot of creative thinking, a lot of money, obviously. It's very hard to do on your own. You pretty much need to get an attorney involved. There are books out there that say you can patent it yourself, but it's so intricate, it's almost mind-boggling.

Your product, Love Bug Eraser, what's so unique about it that gets those dang love bugs away?

It's the texture of the product combined with soap and water that will remove bugs or things such as dirt, grime, brake dust off any surface.

It sounds like a specific war on love bugs. Do you ever get any negative feedback from love bugs?

[Laughs] Everyone who's ever been to Florida seems to know what a love bug is. So we are aiming at the Florida market.






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56er 07/12/12 - 11:05 am
This is

Less of a story and more of an advertisement.

trickyweasel 08/01/12 - 08:59 pm
I wouldnt

buy one of these....just because of this stupid story

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