Oklahoma Inventors Create Substance Out of Dreams.

Sep. 29--Oklahoma's independent inventors toil in basements and makeshift workshops, creating substance from dusty dreams. When they emerge, they are more likely than other inventors to see their ideas through to the patenting process.

Independent inventors receive about half of the state's 500 to 600 inventions while three- quarters of all patents approved in Texas and California go to company inventors, says the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

However, the pathway for Oklahoma inventors is paved with barbed wire and brambles.

"Trudging down the difficult path from idea to marketplace is a long and difficult struggle for inventors," said Don …