Inventhelp

TO BE FAIR: the company is nothing if not totally adamant about disclosures re. success rates and what success you may expect with your invention; and Toni my sales rep. allowed me to cancel my agreement via E-​mail vs. the standard and fair requirement that such notice be provided in writing by certified mail within 7 days; the paperwork/​charge authorization hadn’t been put through that night so it’s not like she’d made a mad dash for the bank or something after we’d left. And their costs seem fair and reasonable. Otherwise, my experience with Inventhelp was an overall unpleasant one. Toni seemed rushed or something throughout our «Free Consultation,» starting with the BIP (Basic Information Package) consisting of a beautiful hardback book they were to compile re. my invention for $ 895, a very cool-​looking hardback that would have my name in it, and a patent search. I’m still not sure what use the book was to be to me or my invention when I received it in 5 – 6 weeks, or how I was to receive it, but one other Unilocaler says it is full of useless information, which I feared. She held out the example on her desk but couldn’t «let (me) see it.» Also, the sketches I prepared there on her desk were so awful I felt a decent patent search would be difficult, and written descriptions of my invention compiled there on their forms weren’t much better but were probably adequate idk; it just seemed like an educated consumer is not their best customer. My questions/​concerns were often met with «You’re not getting it;» or «We don’t have time;» or, sarcastically, «Oh, back to that…» There’s more but I’ll move on. As I said, costwise, the $ 10,000 — $ 15,000 (different levels of marketing interest/​efforts by the company) to file a utility patent seems totally fair in relation to what area patent attorneys charge, and may be reason enough to use Inventhelp, who then brokers you to an attorney they have signed up for that purpose. But on that note, I would adamantly refer any new inventor to the website «IP Watchdog» for thorough and free patent information before ever approaching this company as I learned more from it in 10 minutes than I did from Inventhelp’s «Free Consultation.» Also, everywhere I looked a provisional patent is an excellent and affordable place to start towards a real patent and immediately allows the inventor to say «patent pending,» and for this I have been blown away by Legalzoom. You answer the questions they provide in a format that an eighth grader can understand and for $ 265 ($ 199 plus $ 64 govn’t filing fee) they prepared and filed my provisional patent, and their customer service treated me like a millionaire. I would give Legalzoom ten stars; they are really amazing.