HOW TO SPOT AN INVENTION-PROMOTION SCAM
Most invention-promotion companies are not engineering firms. They sell patents, market-research reports, and "submission to manufacturers" for thousands of dollars, they disclose almost no successes, and they hand you a binder instead of a product. A real engineering firm's first deliverable is an honest feasibility answer, including no. Here is how to tell them apart before you pay.
You have an idea worth building and some money set aside to build it. You search for help, and within a day the companies that find you are polished, encouraging, and everywhere: television spots, a free "inventor's kit", a friendly evaluator who loves your concept. Almost none of them will build your product. They sell the paperwork and the hope around it.
This note explains how that business works, how to recognize it, and what a firm that actually builds things does differently. We build hardware for a living, so read the last section as an interested party. The warning signs before it come straight from the US Patent Office and the Federal Trade Commission.
Promotion and engineering are two different businesses
An invention-promotion firm sells the process around an idea. It files or brokers a patent, writes a "market analysis", and offers to submit your idea to manufacturers who might license it. An engineering firm builds the idea into a working device with a bill of materials and a price. The first sells motion. The second sells a product. The scam lives almost entirely in the first category, which is why the distinction is the whole game.
The upsell ladder
The fraudulent version runs on a fixed sequence, and knowing it makes the pitch obvious.
- The free evaluation. You submit your idea and receive an enthusiastic assessment. It is enthusiastic for everyone, because a rejection ends the sale.
- The small first charge. A few hundred dollars buys a "basic information package" or a preliminary report. This step exists to convert you from prospect to paying customer, where the next ask is easier.
- The large charge. Several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars buys a "submission" or "marketing" campaign to industry. This is where the money is, and where the deliverables stop being things you can hold.
The success rate at the end of that ladder is close to zero, which is why federal law now forces these firms to put the number in writing. Most people never ask to see it.
The warning signs
The Federal Trade Commission's guidance and the Patent Office's own scam-prevention pages converge on a short list. Treat any one of these as a reason to stop.
- The evaluation is always positive. A firm that has never met an idea it disliked is not evaluating anything.
- They will not state their success rate. Ask, in writing, how many of their customers made more money from an invention than they paid the firm. A real answer is a number. Silence is an answer too.
- They rush you toward a patent. A patent on an unbuilt, unproven idea is a cost, not an asset. The build and the market question come first.
- They promise to match you with manufacturers or licensees. The promise is cheap because nothing enforces it, and licensing an unproven concept to industry is rare enough to treat any guarantee of it as a red flag.
- They will not give references or put promises in writing. A firm proud of its work hands you its clients.
What US law already gives you
The American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 was written for exactly this problem. Before an invention-promotion firm can take your money, it must disclose several facts in writing, and the useful one is this: how many of its customers received more in income from their inventions than they paid the firm. It must also disclose the names it has traded under for the past ten years, which is how firms shed bad records and reappear. If a promoter lies or hides these facts, you can sue to recover up to $5,000 in statutory damages, or your actual losses, and up to three times that if the violation was willful. The Patent Office publishes complaints against named promoters and the promoters' responses, so a search there before you sign is fifteen minutes well spent.
What an honest first deliverable looks like
A firm that builds things starts by telling you whether the thing can be built and what it will cost. The first deliverable is a feasibility answer with concept design, a bill of materials carrying real part numbers and prices, and a fixed quote for the next step. Sometimes that answer is no. Physics rules some ideas out, unit economics rule out others, and a $2,000 no is a better outcome than a $60,000 yes on a product that could never sell. A firm that never delivers a no is running a sales operation.
Where we fit, said plainly
We are engineers. We build electronics, firmware, and mechanics into working hardware at a fixed price agreed before work starts, and you own the result. We do not file patents, run "marketing campaigns", or submit ideas to industry. If your idea needs a patent, we will tell you to see a registered patent attorney, which is a different and regulated profession. If a catalog product already does what you want, we will tell you to buy it. If the honest feasibility answer is no, you get that answer and keep your money for the next idea. None of that is generosity; it is what selling a build instead of a dream looks like.
Common questions
Are invention-help companies a scam? Not all of them, but the category is heavy with fraud, and the honest ones and the predatory ones use nearly identical marketing. The reliable filter is the deliverable. A firm that sells patents, market reports, and "submission to manufacturers" is selling process. A firm that sells a working prototype with a bill of materials and a fixed price is selling a product. Judge by which one you are being asked to pay for.
How do I get my invention made without getting scammed? Start with a small, fixed-price engineering step that produces a real decision, usually a feasibility study with concept design, a parts list with prices, and a quote for the build. Avoid any firm whose first product is a patent or a marketing package. Ask every candidate, in writing, how many of its customers earned back more than they paid.
What should an invention company's first deliverable be? An honest feasibility answer: can it be built, how, at what parts cost, for what fixed price, and sometimes the answer that it should not be built at all. Anything whose first deliverable is a patent filing or a "market analysis" has the order backward, because both cost money to produce whether or not your idea has a future.
Does the law protect inventors from these firms? Yes. The American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 requires invention-promotion firms to disclose their track record and past trade names before contracting, and it lets injured customers sue for up to $5,000 or actual damages, trebled for willful violations. The US Patent Office also publishes complaints against named promoters.
Start with a proof-of-concept →
References: USPTO: scam prevention · USPTO: published invention-promoter complaints · FTC: invention marketing scams · USPTO: American Inventors Protection Act of 1999. Related: what a hardware prototype actually costs · how to turn an idea into a product.