Re: InventHelp.com Scam article

[Derek Pater]

Re: InventHelp.com Scam article

by Derek Pater » Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:53 am

Derek Pater

Brown Belt

 

Posts: 517

Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2008 3:11 pm

Location: Melbourne Australia

Well reading all these comments about these Invention Scam Companies makes me understand there are a lot of Inventors out there who have been ripped off,I myself back in my early days of Inventing 14 years ago also was a client of ISC and another Australian Company Royal Idea's in Melbourne.

One positive thing of being their client made me relize how much better I could do this Inventing stuff myself,many Experianced Inventor's will all learn the best way for themselfs to bring success.

Now the whole point of building my website,was to record my experiances and knowlege but also put a huge amount of weblinks and other feedback from other Inventors worldwide, mysite does become quite conflicting, but there is honesty in this method of my approach.

I am not afraid to conflict in my own methods with other Inventors,the true value is being able to go through this whole site and read it and a come to your own conclusion with a lot of real information.

Regards
Derek Pater

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[Inventioninformation]

Inventhelp is a Legitimate Company

by Inventioninformation » Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:00 am

Inventioninformation

White Belt

 

Posts: 1

Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2010 9:56 am

No!
InventHelp is a Legitimate company.

They assist with trying to submit your inventions or new product ideas to industry.
Not to mention they've been
A BBB Accredited business since 8/22/1995
dont believe me?
check it out yourself
http://www.bbb.org/pittsburgh/business- ... gh-pa-715/

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[jackbnimble56]

Re: InventHelp.com Scam article

by jackbnimble56 » Thu Apr 08, 2010 5:45 pm

jackbnimble56

Brown Belt

 

Posts: 860

Joined: Thu Mar 26, 2009 11:28 am

Location: Massachusetts

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Hello new poster to this board. As Ricky Riccardo would say "Lucy! Jou got son splainin' to do!!" If only this were truly funny! In about 5 minutes spent researching complaints about Invent Help I found the following:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/scam_ale ... thelp.html

Excerpt: "I'm out of 12,435.00 with nothing that was promised being delivered or done."

http://www.kirotv.com/money/10283832/detail.html

Excerpt: “As part of that 1994 federal settlement, InventHelp™ now must disclose it's success rate to customers. If you closely read the fine print and then do some math, you'll see that less than one percent of their customers have ever made a profit. Talk about a risky venture.”

http://inventorsdigest.blogspot.com/200 ... ation.html

Excerpt: “As a result of its services, 98 clients have received license agreements for their products, and 20 clients have received more money than they paid InventHelp, the company has reported. In other words, inventor clients had a 0.3 percent chance of making more money than they paid InventHelp.”

Sooo... the floor is now yours! Let's hear what you have to say...

Jack

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[PennyB]

Re: Inventhelp is a Legitimate Company

by PennyB » Thu Apr 08, 2010 7:05 pm

PennyB

Green Belt

 

Posts: 128

Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:41 am

1.

No! InventHelp is a Legitimate company.

a) I'd have to agree with whomever you "really are" that they are a legit company as in, legitimately registered with the Secretary of State as a DBA of Invention Submission Company ("ISC") :
http://www.inventored.org/caution/isc/
http://www.inventored.org/caution/extreme/

2. They assist with trying to submit your inventions or new product ideas to industry.

a) You got that right AGAIN!! Indeed like all invention submission companies they "try" to "assist." I haven't checked their latest published stats compared to the millions they haul in per year. They've been dismal for years and years but maybe things have changed?

3. Not to mention they've been BBB Accredited business since 8/22/1995
dont believe me? check it out yourself
http://www.bbb.org/pittsburgh/business- ... gh-pa-715/

a) Can anyone name one invention submission company that doesn't register with the BBB? There has to be one, doesn't there? Apparently our poster is new to this biz (or maybe an employee of an invention company?) or he'd realize generally speaking, from my personal viewpoint, the BBB acts as a front-end beacon to/for their members (ca-ching, ca-ching) alerting them a month out of an unhappy client thereby giving them time to regroup in order to put out fires such as getting clients to sign Gag Orders or some may even try to solve complaints while others use different tactics.

One key issue is: why are there so many complaints against Inventhelp since it's virtually a new DBA (last couple years) for ISC? There really shouldn't be that many at this early stage, as I see it. I'm thinking we may have to expecct another new DBA this year would be my guess because, minimally, from a PR viewpoint they have to get out from under so many complaints stacking up under this newish entity all over the web. It's a crying shame (the crying icon won't work).

Take care y'all.

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[fhryssd]

Re: InventHelp.com Scam article

by fhryssd » Sun Apr 18, 2010 10:22 am

fhryssd

White Belt

 

Posts: 1

Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 5:30 am

This is a great segment topic. It gives me a lot of thinking/ideas on how to distinguish spam sites. Thanks for the shares fellows.

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[davh12]

Re: InventHelp.com Scam article

by davh12 » Thu Oct 28, 2010 3:38 am

davh12

White Belt

 

Posts: 28

Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2010 6:02 am

Earlier this year I requested some information from invent help. Just curious about who they were.....you know seeing the cave man klank his little stone hammer on a wheel.....lol. They were quick to get in contact and wanted me to meet with them, but when I told them I had already filed for a patent, they lost interest. Seemed to me they were just wanting a profit by acting as a medium between inventors and patent attornys

Regards,

Dave

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[Roger Brown]

Re: InventHelp.com Scam article

by Roger Brown » Thu Oct 28, 2010 4:03 am

Roger Brown

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Posts: 1208

Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:53 pm

Location: USA

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In my opinion the majority of the money made by most of the invention submission companies is through selling services, not by getting your product to market. If you look at the statistics you will see that the percentage of Inventors that actually make more in royalties than they paid for the services is extremely low.

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[Roger Brown]

Re: InventHelp.com Scam article

by Roger Brown » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:33 pm

Roger Brown

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Posts: 1208

Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:53 pm

Location: USA

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I have to give Inventhelp credit for their latest TV ad. They showed one of their clients who got their invention picked up by Whamo. During the narration they stated the Inventor made more in royalties than paid them for their services. They also stated that this is not typical of the majority of people that use their services. I am impressed that they let you know the risks involved. It will be interesting to see how many Inventors actually take the warning versus the others that plung right in.

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[Gizmo]

Re: InventHelp.com Scam article

by Gizmo » Sun Nov 07, 2010 7:34 pm

Gizmo

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Posts: 430

Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:40 am

Location: Florida

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I have to give Inventhelp credit for their latest TV ad. They showed one of their clients who got their invention picked up by Whamo. During the narration they stated the Inventor made more in royalties than paid them for their services. They also stated that this is not typical of the majority of people that use their services. I am impressed that they let you know the risks involved. It will be interesting to see how many Inventors actually take the warning versus the others that plung right in.

Roger,The FTC put the rules in place for InventHelp as part of a settlement

InventHelp has been in trouble with the FTC before. In the early 1990′s, the FTC charged InventHelp with misrepresenting the nature, quality and success rate of the invention promotion services that it offered to customers. The FTC alleged that, despite numerous representations by InventHelp to the contrary, virtually none of its customers earned more from their inventions than they paid for the invention promotion services. In settlement, InventHelp agreed to pay $1.2 million in penalties and provide full disclosure as to its actual success rates to potential customers in the future.In accordance with the FTC’s requirement, and by further requirement of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999, 35 U.S.C. § 297, InventHelp currently states on its website (if you can find it – good luck) the following disclosure:

http://internetlegaladvisor.com/ip-watc ... nventhelp/


/ INVENTION HELP HOME / ABOUT INVENTHELP / WHAM-O TOYS /InventHelp® Client Signs Licensing Agreement with Wham-O Toys
Any person who has ever tossed a Frisbee®, rode their belly down a Slip N’ Slide® or shook their hips inside a Hula Hoop®, has experienced a Wham-O toy. And now the well-known manufacturer of toys and sporting goods has signed an agreement with InventHelp client Bill Schafer to add his invention, the “Splash Wash”, to their product line.

Schafer, an inventor from California, brought the idea for the backyard toy to InventHelp. His idea was for a plastic archway that would connect to a hose and spray out water and bubbles. Kids could ride their big wheels, bikes, trikes or other toy vehicles through the archway to give them a “wash”, or just run through it for some good old-fashioned water fun.

“I was watching my kids ride around in their toy car one summer day when the idea came to me,” Schafer recalls.

Through his InventHelp services, Schafer’s idea was submitted to companies from InventHelp's Data Bank™. One of those companies, toy manufacturer Happiness Express, liked the idea enough to license the invention, though it never wound up being commercialized. But Schafer’s story doesn’t end there.


Click Here to Request FREE Inventor Information!

In 2005, toy-industry veteran Gene Kilroy came to INPEX®, America’s largest invention trade show as a product scout, looking for original toy and game ideas. Kilroy had worked in the toy business for over 30 years, including stints with several major manufacturers, such as Wham-O and Mattel. Kilroy agreed to help InventHelp submit inventions to the company. A number were selected and presented to Wham-O Head of Research and Development, Geoff McKee.

One invention that caught Mckee’s eye was Schafer’s toy car wash idea. He contacted InventHelp expressing interest in licensing it. From there, Intromark Incorporated, a sister company that attempts to license and market inventions from InventHelp clients where substantial interest has been expressed, went to work negotiating an agreement between Schafer and Wham-O. The news that another licensing deal might be in the works, especially one with a company as familiar as Wham-O, came as a bit of a shock to Schafer.

“When I heard that Wham-O was interested in my idea, I was pleasantly surprised.” Schafer explains. “Honestly I thought the idea had sort of run its course.”

In June of 2006, a deal was reached giving Wham-O rights to manufacture and market Schafer’s invention. Currently, Wham-O®, Inc. has finished packaging the invention (under the name the “Splash Wash”) and plans to begin shipping it to stores. Leading toy retailer Toys-R-Us has already ordered the product.

From 2007-2009, we signed Submission Agreements with 5336 clients. As a result of our services, 86 clients have received license agreements for their products, and 27 clients have received more money than they paid us for these services.

Most InventHelp clients do not have the opportunity to have their invention manufactured and sold in major retail outlets.

We are pleased to report that InventHelp’s services have resulted in a financial gain for Mr. Schafer

Last edited by Gizmo on Sun Nov 07, 2010 7:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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[Roger Brown]

Re: InventHelp.com Scam article

by Roger Brown » Sun Nov 07, 2010 7:53 pm

Roger Brown

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Posts: 1208

Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:53 pm

Location: USA

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I know they have had an interesting past. I was commenting on the new ads they are running under the new management. I want to see every company of that type post their success/fail record where it is easy to find on their websites.

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