BEWARE OF MARKETING SCAM COMPANIES 
 
WHO CAN SWINDLE AWAY YOUR MONEY AND YOUR DREAMS.  
 

(This is just little story to help new inventors avoid what happens to most inventors when we they first reach out for help)

The skewed image upon which you just clicked was copied directly from a preliminary patent search which I obtained from The National Idea Center in the late 80’s, after seeing their advertisement on TV.  I paid $700 for the service, which was a lot of money for me at the time. The National Idea Center was one of first of what most of us now know as a televised marketing scam company.   I was an inexperienced inventor at the time and provided them the image which I had created on a cad program while working late as a contracting facilities designer at IBM. The phone design consisted of a headset and mic with a cord running down to a receiver/transmitter unit that clipped onto to a waist belt. The number pad was upside down so you could look down and dial while it remains clipped on your belt. Even a FM radio receiver was included to entertain you when no conversation was in progress.     

I had originally shown a print-out of my design to a mechanical designer, who was also physically challenged, and he said it was a good design and that he would buy one.  I called the design “The Hands Free Cordless Telephone,” something which did not exist at the time in any store. Creating the design was spurred on from impossible attempts to talk on a cordless phone while maneuvering a manual wheelchair, needing both hands to do so. I had this grand idea that if I could free up both my hands while talking on the phone, it would be a joy and benefit to anyone, disabled or not. 

When I paid the $700 to The National Idea Center, it was with the understanding that I was paying for a full patent search.  Later, after only receiving a preliminary search and this scam company asked for more money for a full patent search.  When I argued that I had paid for a full search and demanded my money back, I received a “click” on the other end of the line and never heard from them again. It was discouraging enough to have lost my money to a marketing scam company but I was heartbroken when Radio Shack started selling the same idea in record-breaking numbers 18 months later. It took me another three months to buy one of the phones for myself since stock was selling out so quickly.  I finally bought “my phone” and I still remember looking at it with dread in the Radio Shack parking lot. A tremendous feeling of sickness overcome me that day because I really felt the horror of losing my best idea through my inexperience and why didn’t I have the confidence to persevere after being scammed. I looked everywhere on the product and realizing that Radio Shack was not even claiming “patent pending” and must have considered product was of public domain.  Did this mean they knew someone else might have patent pending status but they could produce the product quickly and profit before a small guy could block them?  Did they license my idea from the scam company? Was it all just a cosmic coincidence? 

Later, while attending one of the first meetings of the new Inventors Alliance group meetings at Hayward State University, I spoke to a lawyer who was one of the guest speakers.  He said,”Do you have any other ideas Mark?  You might as well work on them because even if that phone was your idea, you can’t afford to fight Radio Shack in court.” 

Well, soon after Radio Shack, all the big phone manufactures had jumped on the band wagon and the product is still being sold today. For years I would stop and stare in anger when I would see the product on the shelf. Not anger at Radio Shack but in myself for not believing in myself and my talent.  

SO,

1.) ALWAYS BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND PUSH FORWARD,

2.) GET YOURSELF A GOOD PATENT LAWYER FOR ADVICE AT LEAST,

3.) READ INVENTION BOOKS, MAGAZINES & JION A LOCAL

INVENTORS GROUP, and of course

4.) BEWARE

Thank you,

mark major