MILLTOWN — Over the past 20 years while constructing homes, Bill Corcoran took one constant request and turned it into a business.
“The women of the household on more than one occasion and without provocation said they wished they had something in their shower or bathtub where they could put their legs up and shave,” he said.
It was five years ago when Corcoran put that idea, which he named the Butt Bench, into an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
After three rejections, the Milltown resident received word on Sept. 27 that his invention had received a patent.
“The Butt Bench can support anyone’s weight and comes in a 15-inch and a 12-inch size,” he said. “It comes in white, pink and two different types of wood, including southern yellow pine and western red cedar, which are waterproof.”
The Butt Bench is a sturdy, high-quality, patent-approved bathtub seat made of natural wood.
Corcoran said he has gotten great feedback for other uses besides the initial purpose of shaving legs.
“Pet lovers have come back happy about the Butt Bench because their pets have a place to sit down,” he said, saying he was recently featured in a pet magazine.
“With the bench, seniors and pregnant women have a place to sit. Also, some women said they have turned their bath into a sauna,” he said.
The bench is also a place where people can organize their bath bottles of lotions, soaps, shampoos and conditioners.
For Corcoran, the process of getting a patent, especially after those rejections, was not easy.
“The reasons for rejections were outlandish and did not compare,” he said. “I was frustrated and just kept arguing. … It became an obsession.”
Corcoran said he digested two books on applying for patents and eventually hired a lawyer.
Now he is on to the next challenge of marketing his invention, with the hopes of reach- ing people nationwide.
“It’s very difficult,” he said, adding that the patent process, although long and daunting, pales in comparison.
Corcoran said the final product did not come easy.
“When I started, I made hundreds of stupid mistakes, so many test fails,” he said. “I just kept on trying and learned from all the mistakes that I made.”
Along the way, he consulted with local molding companies, which he said gave him sound advice.
He also battled with the name of his invention.
“It took me six months to deliberate,” he said.
Corcoran said he was sitting with a friend in his kitchen going back and forth with names.
“He said ‘Butt Bench’ and we laughed,” he said. “The rest of day we kept on saying it. It was a joke, it was funny — but we didn’t think it could be a name for a business.”
Corcoran said other names didn’t roll off the tongue like Butt Bench, so he asked some 200 people what they thought of the name.
“I didn’t want it to sound vulgar,” he said.
Corcoran said he came to realize that people would either crack a smile or laugh once he told them the name. He also said he heard the word “Butt” used in a Verizon commercial, and that was a contributing factor in his final decision.
“I took a leap of faith to use the name, and it came with great trepidation and nerves,” he said. “My wife designed the logo, which actually has a cartoon butt drawn.”
Corcoran said his goal is to sell Butt
Bench on the mass market. He said one of the deciding factors was that the basic bathtub has not changed in over 50 years.
Corcoran said there are exceptions, including glass sliding doors and larger tubs. For some customers, he has custom-built the bench.
After much blood, sweat, tears and a lot of patience, Corcoran said he is finally relaxed and comfortable with his final product. Now he is learning about shipping.
“We have shipped seats to every state in the United States,” he said, adding that seats have also been shipped to Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico. “Also, we even shipped one to an Army base in Germany.”
For more information, visit www.buttbench.com.