Patent Registry Scams

• Even with all the paperwork required to file a patent application, read every line carefully.signing a contract image by William Berry from Fotolia.com
  
  Inventing a product may take great skill and a tremendous commitment, but not every inventor knows the details of intellectual property law that govern their creation. There are a number of scams targeting inventors that a wary patent-seeker should know about. While the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 protects inventors from improper and illegal invention promotion by holding marketing firms accountable, recognizing patent registry scams before being victimized by them can save you thousands of dollars and even protect your invention.
  
  

Unscrupulous Invention Promotion or Marketing

• Illegal or just dishonest invention promotion companies will urge you to patent your idea and promise that they can help you achieve great commercial success with the patent, but will charge you astronomical fees and even present false market research results to you after taking your money. They may also charge you a high advance for licensing your product to manufacturers, preventing you from receiving your due in license payments.
  
  

Avoiding Fraudulent Promotion Companies

• Invention marketing companies are required by law to share with you information about their company, including how many patents they have evaluated for commercial success, how many of those patents they have then promoted, the number of customers who have received financial gain from the company's services and a list of promotion companies that the employees have worked for in the past. Pay attention to how many customers the company actually has, how many of the customers have received financial gain and how many of the customers have had licenses for their patents renewed.
  
  

Illegal Demands for Fees

• Some patent fraudsters send official-looking letters to a new inventor demanding additional and fraudulent fees for registering a patent application. Frequently these letters claim a false association with the European Patent Office. Essentially, this scam asks the inventor to pay additional money to repost information already publicly available, "registering" it on another website.
  
  

Recognizing a Fraudulent Demand

• Read the text of any letters you receive about your patent application very carefully. Often the letter will say in fine print that the money is only due if you accept their offer for patent "registration." Sometimes claims in the letter will not add up, demanding that you send money for a European patent registration to an American address. If you have any questions about communication you receive about your patent, call a patent lawyer, the American Intellectual Property Law Association or even the United States Patent and Trademark Office.