ABC’s new show American Inventor apparently has the nation’s invention promotion companies in a frenzy, gobbling up “American inventor” Google/Yahoo ads as fast as possible. For instance, run this Google search for “American Inventor” and check out the ads in the right hand margin.
BEFORE you ever do work with any company, patent attorney, patent agent, marketing company, etc…DO YOUR HOMEWORK (and search the Internet).
A good starting point for your research is reviewing my post on Independent Inventors and Invention Promotion Companies. Also read: Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Alert “Spotting Sweet-Sounding Promises of Fraudulent Invention Promotion Firms“
If you are getting a high pressure sales job and/or they are telling you (before having a patent search done) that your idea is the best idea they’ve ever heard…beware!
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After the American Inventors show I decided to find the lady “dismissed” by judge Doug Hall claiming he had a Bed Organizer on his bed at home so her “invention” was not new. She claimed to have spent a lot of money on getting it to the point it was at then. Hall asked why she’d spent so much. Apparently she’d gone to an “800#” company; some of whom advertise on TV commercials.
Attorney Carl Oppendahl posted somewhere on the web her two patent numbers. I could not find a phone listing for her so I sent her a letter to learn which company she went to. In the meantime, I noted her patents were written by “Goldstein Law Offices.” I printed all 435 of them then began a phone blitz. I found quite a lot of inventor phone numbers. Common denominators 100% of them shared: Allegedly paying “Advent Product Developemnt” between $13,000 – $15,000. One claimed her patent search had been farmed-out to an attorney in Las Vegas. She did not know who it was. However, two/three years ago one Matthew J.Pierce phoned me hoping I would refer inventors to him (we live in the same town). I asked for his experience in writing and having patents issued to which he responded (paraphrased): I’ve written them for Invention Submission Corporation (ISC) and Advent Product Development.
Note: Anyone noticed ISC is not using in their TV commercials “ISC” but is now calling itself “Inventhelp”?
PJ
PS. Catch me “live” on Internet Radio March 23rd at 1:PM Central Standard Time by going to http://www.youinventit.com Type Qs then send them to the show under the link provided. I will answer them over your ‘puters sound system.