The American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 gives you certain rights when dealing with invention promoters.
Before an invention promoter can enter into a contract with you, it must disclose the following information about its business practices during the past
five years:
• how many inventions it has evaluated,
• how many of those inventions got positive or negative evaluations,
• its total number of customers,
• how many of those customers received a net profit from the promoter’s services, and
• how many of those customers have licensed their inventions due to the promoter’s services.
As an example, the following is what davison has listed on their site as required by law. It would be great to see all invention submission companies comply and post their stats. If you look at their success rate it is not that great. As they say be careful who you do business with.
AFFIRMATIVE DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
You should read all of this information carefully before proceeding.
The total number of consumers who submitted new product ideas to Davison during the past five years is five hundred eleven thousand nine hundred seventeen (511,917). Davison does not provide evaluation of commercial potential; thus, it has provided no positive or negative evaluation of this or any other product idea in the last five years. The total numanir of consumers who were offered a Pre-Development agreement (or similar contract for research services) is three hundred four thousand one hundred two (304,102). The total number of consumers who were offered a Contingency Agreement (or other contract for licensing representation) is three hundred four thousand one hundred two (304,102). The total number of consumers who purchased a Pre-Development Agreement or similar contract for research services is forty nine thousand thirty four (49,034). The total number of consumers who signed a Contingency Agreement or other licensing representation agreement is forty nine thousand thirty four (49,034). The total number of consumers who were offered a New Product Sample Agreement (or any other contract for design services for a virtual or a product sample) is thirty six thousand seven hundred fifty five (36,755) The number of consumers who signed a New Product Sample Agreement or similar agreement is thirteen thousand two hundred ninety seven (13,297). The number of consumers who obtained a written license with a company that is not affiliated with Davison is three hundred fifteen (315). The total number of consumers in the last five years who made more money in royalties than they paid, in total, under any and all agreements with Davison, is ten (10). The percentage of Davison's income that came from royalties paid on licenses of consumers' products is .001%.
Numbers current as of April 10, 2009
