Meet Molly Metz | Jump Rope Inventor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Molly Metz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Molly, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
This is a great question!

I started JumpNrope because I was trying to solve a problem.

As a 5-time world jump rope champion, getting “older” I realized that the reason the sport wasn’t growing was because all the competitors would stop at 18 years old when they went off to college.

I wanted those competitors to be the sports future ambassadors/coaches. I had a vision that these particular athletes could contact me, jumpNrope and I would set them up at a local rec center/ymca with a jumpNrope program for kids, that they would teach. I would provide curriculum, ropes etc so they could feel empowered to take their knowledge as an athlete and bring it back to the kids!

This blossomed into me also solving a second problem, which was the speed jump ropes that we were using in competition were breaking, not going fast enough and not providing me at the time with what i wanted to go faster and win! I was awared two patents in 2010 and 2012 on a revolutionary jump rope technology! Whi inspired me to start my manufacturing business in 2010!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My company JumpNrope was founded in 2007. I quit a “comfortable” job and nervously set off to see if my vision would turn into something more!

I remember walking into my local recreation center and pitching a jump rope program for kids – they were totally in! After one year of working with a handful of rec centers, I was ready to go further!

By 2009/2010 I was in over 35 locations across the front range, CO and had employeed over a dozen instructors!

It was NOT easy. Ironically, doing it myself with a small amount of locations was probably the most comfortable I have been in the last 16 years of owning JumpNrope.

Having employees, (young ones, often 16 years old), jugglings dozens of contracts/locations, adding in tournaments and the parents of the kids was a wake up call!

Launching my manufacturing business in 2010 was exciting! I have a background in production management, though creating your own product is SCARY! My first jump rope mold was nearly $20,000. A hefty amount of money to pay on something you don’t for certain the end product is what you want!

By 2012 my programs were booming, I had my own jump rope team with over 100 kids on it and my jump rope technology was revolutionizing not ony the jump rope world (athletes were breakign world records) but the CrossFit/Funcation fitness space was jumping all over it – literally.

This was my wake-up call to infringement (other companies stealing my IP/patented technology). I started to reach out to companies to work with me, license or stop. I made some tremendous partnerships in 2011/2012, minus one company, the largest company in the space, Rogue Fitness. They decided to not work with me and instead sent me an email that said “talk to our attorneys”.

Simultaneously. I found a facility in 2012, 10,000sqft. I wanted a home base for everything that was happening. Manufacturing was happening my garage and basement, and I was paying tons of rent at facilities for my team to practice.

The facility I found needed some renovations, that at the time we thought $50K and a few months we would be moving in. This was NOT The case.

About 1.5 years later and just shy of $300K the building was complete. I moved in with all my kids, production and a full staff of about 45 employees/coaches.

The company that stole ended up hurting my business for years to come…. Even though JumpNrope was “the” name in the industry for ropes/content and crossfit training, the company Rogue was devasting my bottom line. My consumer sales were dropping, each year Rogue would keep introducing new ropes with well known athletes in the space names on them – with my technology. This inpsired other companies to steal, by 2015 over 150 companies were stealing my technology.

After years of this I couldn’t keep all of the function of JumpNrope alive – I made one of the hardest decisions which was to close my kids programs and move my manufacturing to a smaller location with the intention to fight the people stealing my technology.

When you are granted a patent in the US – you have the right to stop your infringers. For nearly 3 years I did just that. I found a great attorney and we fought – we started withe smaller companies, we worked deals, we set up licensing agreements and some we just stopped.

In 2018 I had one more infringer to stop – Rogue Fitness.

I served them in the fall of 2018. It was at that point that I learned about how the US Patent System has been hurting small inventors like me.

What happens when you serve an infringer you go to court with a judge – District Court. The judge gives the patent owner almost all of the time an injuction, then will hear the case with a jury, due process, witnesses and evidence.

This doesn’t happen anymore if your infringer is large like mine.

Almost all the time a large infringer will pay for what is called an IPR – Inter Parties Review.

The Judge at District Court grants this almost every time, so it puts my infringement case on hold. The technicaly word is a stay.

Then, I am sent to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, the PTAB. An adminstrative court that congress create in 2012. This court has nothing to do with Rogue infringing, in fact, this court is now a place for me, the inventor to PROVE My patent is valid.

Your probably thinking, hmm. Molly was granted two patents in 2010/2012, she has gone to court with other companes, she has licensing deals, she is also a commercial success with this revolutionary technology.

Why does she have to prove the validity of this already valid patent?

I thought the same thing. You look it up on the USPTO website and they describe it as an inventor friendly court, cheaper, faster, alternative to court.

It is exactly the opposite of all those things.

In a 1-hour zoom call with the three “judges” (who are not presidentially appointed) from the ptab, they sent me an email 3-months later with a certificate that both my patents were cancelled.

What does this mean? It means all the licensing deals I had, the rights to my technology and decade of proudly being “that” American Dream was told “Sorry, Rogues “expert” made us believe your patents are not valid”

A few things about this “court”: I am/was not allowed to speak, show evidence, work with the examiner that granted my patents, no due process, no jury, etc……

At this point i had spent nearly $500K defending the validity of my decade old patents..

I appealed, this took a year, and I received a ruling 2 days after my appeal (which usually you wait 6 months.) but received this new ruling called a Rule 36. A fancy rule where the court didn’t look at the appeal.

This entire process took 4-years, $500k. I lost all my licensing deals, all my employees and now carried a huge debt.

Going through this you feel SO stupid. You really put the blame on yourself thinking “what did I do wrong”.

Then I woke up a month later and I researched, I found people, I found the truth.

I wasn’t alone. There were thousands of small inventors like me! REALLY smart ones!! Who ALL had their patents cancelled.

This particular organization who I now advocate with US Inventor took me under the wings and taught me all about what happend in the last decade in Congress and how big tech lobbied the Judiciary Committee to set up the PTAB – this “faster, cheaper, alternative” court. Alone with years of more bad law to keep small inventors from dreaming, daring and literally from becoming big like them.

It is disgusting. I have been now advocating for the last 2-years. 2021 was my official certificate from the USPTO of my patents being cancelled. I plan to be louder in 2025 as I have learned so much about the law, congress and will not stop until our rights are restored.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am not a city person. I would take them to the mountains, perhaps an easy drive to Estes Park and loop up back behind the great divide, get in some small hikes and fun local eateries.

If you come to Colorado I say, get to the mountains!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The founder of the sport of jump rope, Richard Cendali was my jump rope coach. I started on the jump rope team at the age of 7. He was a huge innovator and visionary. He inspired us as kids to be bigger and better than we were. We were both performers and educators of the sport at a young age. I was able to travel the world at a very young age. My life and personality probably would have never blossomed to what it is today – which is to be ok with taking risks, trying new things, inspiring others and just being of service.

There are a lot of other people that have passed through my life who deserve recognition. Right now, in my life I am very inspired by inventor Josh Malone. He teaches me that there is hope and light in our lives when we are faced with adversity in our lives.

Website: https://www.jumpNrope.com

Instagram: mollorama or jumpnrope

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-metz-71720419/

Twitter: @mollymetz4

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/molly.metz.54

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JumpNropeTV

Image Credits
I am launching my story website www.MollyMetz.com in January!