Protecting Yourself From Invention-Promotion Scams

5. Use the Web to check for complaints about the company. Search "invention" on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Web site and the U.S. Patent and Trademark site. These sites also have instructions on how to file a complaint.

6. Refer to the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999. The law requires a firm to present certain provisions to you prior to contracting. These provisions include the number of inventions the firm has evaluated over the prior five years, the number of customers the firm has contracted with, the number of customers who have made money and the names and phone numbers of other invention companies with whom the principals of the firm have been previously affiliated.

7. Be sure your agreement contains clear timelines. These timelines should state when the company should achieve certain benchmarks and when it will communicate progress to you. It should also contain a clause that permits you to terminate the agreement if you are dissatisfied, without releasing any of the rights to your invention.

8. Some of these companies have offered "guaranteed patents." Understand that anybody can submit and receive a patent if the claim(s) are narrow enough. Few, if any, serious patent attorneys I know would offer a "guarantee" of issuance of a patent if the claims are being written as broadly as possible. Therefore, before accepting any "guaranteed patent" you may want an outside USPTO-registered patent attorney to review the documentation.

The bottom line? Be skeptical. Keep your eyes and ears open and your wallet closed until you've completed due diligence on the company with which you plan to do business.