VENTURA, Calif. — Bob Noe's idea for a better mousetrap is called the Rat Zapper.
Sold under the slogan "The Power Tool for Rodent Control," it is a blue plastic box about the size of a milk carton that runs on four AA batteries. It electrocutes rats or mice after luring them inside using dried dog food as bait.
Unfortunately for Noe, the world hasn't beaten a path to his door. Despite decades of innovation, this busy corner of entrepreneurship remains unusually fruitless.
Since Noe began selling the traps a decade ago, profits have been "spotty," he says. Before long, he became embroiled in an expensive legal battle with one of the country's oldest mousetrap makers.
There is little agreement on the best way to kill a mouse. Some people recoil at the thought of snap traps, which often work like tiny guillotines. Others are horrified by glue traps, which kill their prey slowly by starvation or suffocation. Poison works but can harm pets, children and wildlife.
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Nonetheless, it isn't easy to convince consumers they need a household appliance like the Rat Zapper to kill rodents when these other, more familiar alternatives crowd hardware stores.
Then there is the price: $39.95 vs. about 50 cents for a basic snap trap.
Noe, 60, a retired attorney, got the idea for his invention after seeing a gopher killed by touching an electrified fence on his ranch in the hills above Ventura. Over time, he has refined his marketing. At the start of this decade, he introduced an updated version dubbed the Rat Zapper 2000, but it sounded increasingly outdated as time passed. Noe dropped the millennial reference last year.
His big troubles began in 2000 when he was contacted by Woodstream Corp., manufacturer of Victor mousetraps — the ubiquitous wooden devices marked with a red "V" — which have been made in Lititz, Pa., for more than a century. Woodstream wanted Noe to produce Rat Zappers under the Victor brand name to sell in big retailers.
Three years later, after selling $225,000 worth of Rat Zappers, Woodstream dropped Noe's product in favor of its own "Electronic Mouse Trap" and "Electronic Rat Trap." The inventor sued the company in federal court in Philadelphia in July 2004, accusing it of violating his patent. In court filings, Woodstream denies that and counters that Noe's patent is invalid.
The U.S. Patent Office has issued about 4,400 patents for mousetraps over the years, but most are never made.
Noe is determined to team up with a larger company to sell his invention. He is currently working with Applica Inc., a Miramar, Fla., company that makes a range of household appliances, including some sold under the Black & Decker name.
Noe and Applica are developing a version to sell to big retailers.