I contacted Invention Technologies, Inc. After seeing their advertisment on television. I was sent information regarding what the company will do for me. I faxed the drawing and info they required to get started. The next week their representative (Harry King) called me to discuss my invention.
Mr. King informed me that my invention was one of the best inventions he'd seen. He was excited to tell me that he just came out of a meeting about me. My idea was only 1 of 3 that were chosen out of 100 ideas and I should send him $895.00 right away so his waiting "team" could get started.
He sounded like a slick-talking used car salesman, therefor I called him on it. He stuck to his ground and kept asking for my money right away. I told him to call me in a couple days considering I was at work at the time. He got my address so he could send the contract for my signature.
In a couple of days, he called. I was available to discuss my idea. Mr. King told me he just came out of a half-hour meeting about my idea and his team was very excited to get started with my prototype and drawings. He said he needed to get start right away so my product can get headlined at the spring trade shows. All I had to do was send him the money.
I tried to get a few words in between his pitch and it irritated him to the point of him raising his voice in anger. I finaly asked him if I'd get my money back if the patent already existed. "Good question. I'm glad you asked! You will get back every dime you send us. We're not in the business of wasting our time with already patented ideas. We make most of our money off the 10% royalties. And don't worry, we'll be your representative in the licensing process."
Then I asked what my end cost would be to Invent Tech. "You only have to give us the $895 and maybe $1000 to get the patent and that's it! We already did a preliminary patent search on your idea and we're 98% positive nothing like it exists. Do you want to send a check to me today or do you prefer a credit card?" I told him to call me in a couple of days so I could give him my credit card number (I didn't have the card handy).
I immediatly went to my computer to do a prelim patent search myself. It took me 10 seconds to find my product was already patented. I took another look at the Invent-Tech contract to find it didn't represent anything he told me over the phone. I work with contracts on a daily basis. It's my job. This contract only benefits Invent-Tech. Read it!
He called me a couple of days later. I told him I decided to work with a patent attorney. He just hung up on me.
I wrote this to educate the public. Please reseach this company before signing anything. They will try to direct you to the BBB. Don't bother. The BBB doesn't have anything on them. Go to the FTC. There's plenty of info there.
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