Unfortunately, with the growth of the Internet has come a growing number of companies that advertise services to inventors, especially online, that don’t live up to their promises.  The offers to market your product(s) or service(s) might sound great and the price might be just within your budget, but all too often, inventors find themselves stuck within a scam. 

One of the mandates of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 is that the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the (USPTO) should provide a public forum for the publication of complaints concerning invention promoters/promotion firms. USPTO also publishes responses to the complaint from the invention promoters/promotion firms.

Before you sign up with any “invention marketing” company, be sure you’ve done proper research to ensure that you’re teaming with a reputable company. 

 Here are some tips to keep you safe from scams:

• First, be sure to visit the scam prevention section of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Web site, regularly updated with new resources to help inventors avoid scams.
• Review the USPTO’s Invention Promotion Firm Complaints web page. If you think you’ve been the victim of an invention promotion company scam, the site also contains instructions for submitting a complaint to the USPTO.
• Also review the USPTO's Inventor Targeted Scam Prevention Brochure
• Visit the USPTO's Independent Inventors Resource Page for more answers and guidance.
• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also has a great primer on its site called Facts on Invention Promotion Firms.
• The FTC recently published a useful consumer alert: “Spotting Sweet-Sounding Promises of Fraudulent Invention Promotion Firms”, which is a must read for any inventor.