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EMBARGOED
UNTIL 11:30 A.M. ON JULY 23, 1997 FTC/STATE "PROJECT
MOUSETRAP" SNARES
INVENTION PROMOTION INDUSTRY
A
significant number of firms in the invention promotion
industry are perpetrating a massive fraud on middle
American consumers by claiming they have the resources
and corporate connections to successfully develop
and market individuals' inventions, according to federal
and state officials who gathered at Federal Trade
Commission headquarters in Washington, D.C. today.
Issuing
a message of extreme caution to consumers about using
the very expensive, but almost always fruitless, services
of an invention promotion firm, the FTC announced
"Project Mousetrap," a law-enforcement sweep
that has leveled federal and state charges in seven
actions against companies and their principals involved
in schemes purportedly to help independent inventors
who tinker away in their garages late into each night
in the hope of "building a better mousetrap."
The
FTC, which brought five of the cases, said the defendants
in its actions generated in excess of $90 million
for their own pockets by exploiting the ideas, hopes
and dreams of tens of thousands of consumers.
The
Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office brought its
action under the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule, one
of the first to be brought by a state in federal court
seeking a temporary restraining order and asset freeze,
without notice to the defendants, under that rule.
Florida's
Attorney General also filed an action, in state court,
as part of Project Mousetrap.
The
FTC obtained temporary restraining orders and asset
freezes against the defendants in its cases and is
seeking permanent injunctions and redress for consumers.
The
FTC issued several new consumer education pieces at
the press conference: a post card, new consumer brochure,
"Invention Promotion Firms," and an alert,
"Spotting Sweet-Sounding Promises of Fraudulent
Invention Promotion Firms," as well as a brief
that includes a patent search crossword puzzle, all
of which it developed in cooperation with the USPTO.
The pieces feature information about how to detect
and avoid invention promotion scams.
Defendants
named in the FTC cases are:
• International Product Design Inc.
• The Innovation Center Inc.
• The National Idea Center Inc.
All of which were headquartered in Washington, D.C.
and preceded the following four firms:
• American Invention Associates Inc. headquartered
in Miami, Florida
• Invention Consultants, USA, Inc. of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
• New Products of America, Inc., of Atlanta, Georgia
• International Licensing Corporation, Inc. of Reston,
Virginia
• Azure Communications, Inc., of Reston, Virginia,
doing business as London Communications, Inc. and
which is the corporate headquarters of the four successor
firms; and officers of one or more of the companies
Robert N. Waxman, Peter Doran, Darrell Mormando, Julian
Gumpel and Greg Wilson;
• National Idea Network, Inc., doing business as The
Concept Network out of Indiana and Wexford, Pennsylvania;
CEO and President Harry E. Sharf, III, Executive Vice
President Wayne R. Obitz, and Senior Marketing
Representative
Robert J. Zarko;
Davison & Associates, Inc., of Oakmont and Indianola,
Pennsylvania; President and CEO George M. Davison,
III, and sales associate Thomas Dowler;
Eureka Solutions International, Inc. and OEM Communications,
both doing business out of the West Pittsburgh Expo
Mart in Monroeville, Pennsylvania; President and founder
Gregory S. Bender, and sales representative Frank
J. Cillo; and one other case, still under a court-ordered
seal.
THE
FRAUDULENT INVENTION PROMOTION SCHEME:
The
FTC said its investigations of the industry have given
it a wealth of knowledge about how invention promotion
firms work.
Most
firms offer services in two stages, the FTC said.
First,
the firm might promise a free initial evaluation of
the inventor's idea -- the evaluation is virtually
always highly favorable -- and that sets the stage
for phase one, a more extensive study of the idea
and its patentability and market potential.
The
FTC showed samples of these reports at today's news
conference -- they often are quite lengthy, but typically
are mass produced and consist largely of boilerplate
pages into which the inventor's name and idea is electronically
inserted.
Indeed,
the FTC said, fraudulent invention promotion firms
do not offer an honest appraisal of the merit, technical
feasibility or market potential of an idea, and in
some instances their patent searches are incomplete.
Nonetheless,
these reports generally cost several hundred dollars
or more, although the price is not mentioned until
after the customer is taken through a series of calculations
about the costs associated with manufacturing and
marketing the product and its ultimate retail price.
The sum of this discussion -- the likely profits an
inventor might see -- is inevitably big dollars, officials
said.
The
phase one report serves as a marketing tool for phase
two services, which include patenting and marketing
the idea.
Invention
promotion firms might mention trade shows at which
they purportedly will display an idea, or special
relationships they have with manufacturers who might
be interested in producing it.
Unscrupulous
promoters often require the consumer to pay a fee
of several thousand dollars -- in some instances,
more than $10,000 -- in advance for phase two services,
the FTC said, noting that reputable companies usually
rely on royalties from the successful licensing of
their clients' ideas, rather than large advance fees.
