"What is laid down, ordered ...is never enough... life always spills over the rim of every cup."
Boris Pasternak, writer
Englishwoman Mandy Haberman was not particularly involved with the business of invention or innovation until the birth of her third child, Emily, in 1980. Emily was born with Stickler syndrome, a genetic disorder that impaired her sucking ability and made feeding difficult. Finding no helpful products available, Haberman applied her talent for problem solving and began to think about a feeder to meet the needs of Emily and other children with sucking difficulties.
Ten years later, in 1990 at a friend's house, she was struck by inspiration once again when a toddler spilled blackcurrant juice from a training cup over their cream-colored carpet. Training cups at that time could be closed manually, but Haberman developed a better cup with a unique valve in the mouthpiece that only let out liquid when it was sucked.
The Anywayup Cup® was patented and put into production, but Haberman could not persuade retailers of the benefits of her leakproof product in such a narrow market. Her breakthrough came after she sent a filled cup through the postal system to a major supermarket chain. The cup did not spill a drop in transit and the company took up the product immediately. Millions of Anywayup Cups® are now sold annually across the world, and Haberman has received many awards, including British Female Inventor of the Year in 2000, for her innovations.
After a series of legal fights against several imitation products that infringed her original patent, Haberman has also become actively involved in improving the patent system and devotes much of her time to encouraging other aspiring inventors.
