Sounds like an inventor submission company to me. Beware….. Mark posted something about submission companys in the last week. Theres a set of rules they have to follow.
I have to say the $$$ amount looked pretty good until I seen the 10% profit. Do you have a problem saying who the company is ????

Yeah…what is the company…can’t be the sleeze currently peddling complete invention services on here now…trying to steal work from EN…that guy would charge you $20,000 for that…you should see his price list…but the peddlers and their scams do not last long around here.

How good can they be if they have to come on another man’s “property” to steal their business?

Don’t worry…EN always weeds out the invention promoting solicitors on here with a solid kick out.

EN I heard invested 5 million dollars in their operations here and we all get to use their “facilities” if you can understand.

That is why I get upset when I see some parasite trying to steal their customers…and all the EN people are really a bunch of very good people personally. I met them.

I think you will lose your money and be no further ahead. IH put me in the hole a few thousand dollars a couple of years back.

I know all these companies say they’ll work closely with the inventor to make sure their invention looks just as they want it to look. But the truth is that most of these places will allow you a couple of artistic changes before they start billing you.
Also, chances are you might me horrified when you see their writing ‘talent’ on your webpage and think…hmmm..I could have had my 3rd grader write something better than that.

Does it need to be animated? Is it a mechanical device? Because I can’t see a reason to show something like a potato masher in action, know what I mean?

You can get all of these things done cheaper on your own and be more in control of the outcome. Once you sign that contract you can be left feeling helpless knowing they have your money and your options are limited.
I suggest that you are already leary by coming here to ask. I’d trust that feeling.

If it’s the presenting to companies you’re concerned about, pay EN their 20 dollars and let them do it for you.

Good luck :-)

Below is the major portion of he act. The quickest way to is to ask "How many people have made more in royalties than they have paid you for your srevices?

Before you contact any invention submission company be sure you are aware of information they are required to give you by law if you request it. If the company is unwilling to give this information do not use them.

This subtitle may be cited as the `Inventors’ Rights Act of 1999’.
SEC. 4102. INTEGRITY IN INVENTION PROMOTION SERVICES.
(a) IN GENERAL- Chapter 29 of title 35, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
`Sec. 297. Improper and deceptive invention promotion
`(a) IN GENERAL- An invention promoter shall have a duty to disclose the following information to a customer in writing, prior to entering into a contract for invention promotion services:
`(1) the total number of inventions evaluated by the invention promoter for commercial potential in the past 5 years, as well as the number of those inventions that received positive evaluations, and the number of those inventions that received negative evaluations;
`(2) the total number of customers who have contracted with the invention promoter in the past 5 years, not including customers who have purchased trade show services, research, advertising, or other nonmarketing services from the invention promoter, or who have defaulted in their payment to the invention promoter;
`(3) the total number of customers known by the invention promoter to have received a net financial profit as a direct result of the invention promotion services provided by such invention promoter;

‘(4) the total number of customers known by the invention promoter to have received license agreements for their inventions as a direct result of the invention promotion services provided by such invention promoter; and
`(5) the names and addresses of all previous invention promotion companies with which the invention promoter or its officers have collectively or individually been affiliated in the previous 10 years.
`(b) CIVIL ACTION- (1) Any customer who enters into a contract with an invention promoter and who is found by a court to have been injured by any material false or fraudulent statement or representation, or any omission of material fact, by that invention promoter (or any agent, employee, director, officer, partner, or independent contractor of such invention promoter), or by the failure of that invention promoter to disclose such information as required under subsection (a), may recover in a civil action against the invention promoter (or the officers, directors, or partners of such invention promoter), in addition to reasonable costs and attorneys’ fees—
`(A) the amount of actual damages incurred by the customer; or
`(B) at the election of the customer at any time before final judgment is rendered, statutory damages in a sum of not more than $5,000, as the court considers just.
`(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), in a case where the customer sustains the burden of proof, and the court finds, that the invention promoter intentionally misrepresented or omitted a material fact to such customer, or willfully failed to disclose such information as required under subsection (a), with the purpose of deceiving that customer, the court may increase damages to not more than three times the amount awarded, taking into account past complaints made against the invention promoter that resulted in regulatory sanctions or other corrective actions based on those records compiled by the Commissioner of Patents under subsection (d).

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Tell them good bye it sounds like a rip off to me…..

I would get more information before you write them off. For example, how much do they charge for a patent search? I have seen a low of $250 to $1000. Is the patent application a Provisional, Design or Utility? DirtcheapPatents charges $2195 for a utility patent and assume the $500 filing fee is extra. How much is the monthly fee for hosting the web site? and how many web pages are included. GoDaddy.com charges around $70 a year for your own domain name and hosts a simple five page web site. Ask for references and follow them up. Another way to go might be to file a Provisional Patent ($110 if your file yourself – high of $1500), spend the money on at least two working prototypes and call manufactures yourself about licensing. Best of luck.

BEWARE THE SOLICITORS ON HERE LATELY

Wait a minute here….are you sure you are getting a full patent application written up? $4900 for that alone is considered cheap. You must be getting a quick provisional or something written of maybe you are mistaken…or just taken….there are a couple guys on here selling that same deal without any patent work for 5 or 6 thousand. You get a website with flash features…big deal and a couple handfuls of printed literature for all that money….BEWARE. Sounds like those guys PMed you too from fishing around this forum

You can get a good website for $500 in this economy (just watch the maintenance deals carefully sometimes) and I got HIGH quality printing from VistaPrint.com…get some graphics person moonlighting to help design…that is all you need to start as an inventor.

From Vista Print I got 10,000 color both sides glossy stock…Ten Thousand..for $140
5000 color both sides heavy glossy stock postcards for about $330
Tri-fold brochures for 50 cents each….1000 for $500

There is a company on here selling a package like this for THOUSANDS when you can get what you need for one thousand. I KNOW…my postcards and mediocre website got me on the cover of a major magazine, in Popular Mechanics, on the Discovery Channel…in piles of magazines worldwide…just search Handi-Straps…and I have sales completely around the world to many many countries.

ALL done with a website a friend did for free and maybe $500 in printing over a period of a couple years. THAT IS ALL YOU NEED TO START…you are not a big company that needs more…and besides…everyone does websites now…they are getting cheaper every day.

This company will also offer to take over promotion of your invention and manage your royalties….THE SAME COMPETING SERVICE AS EN…but they cost less money than EN…think they want a kidney, and arm and a bucket of blood…atleast

Thanks for the comments. The co. name is Idea Design Studio. Ive been happy with their work so far and they have an A- rating with the BBB however, when I told them that I wanted to take a week to do more research before I signed their contract the guy tried to really get me to sign it that day. He said that if I didn’t he wouldn’t be able to work on my project again until this summer. That bothered me. What do you think? Has anyone worked with or heard about this co?

Sounds like the high pressure sale to me. If he is that busy that if you don’t sign that day he won’t touch it until summer what makes you think he will have time if you signed today? I bet if you talk to him next week he will suddenly have an opening. I would tell him you’ll get back to him in the summer and see what he says. I bet his calendar is suddenly clear.
I have always been leary of anyone that does the today or the option goes away. The time share people do the same tactic.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

I haven’t but pressure selling to me is never good. I wish you luck in your project.

High pressure sales is a warning sign and I hope for your sake you walk away.

Is this the company in the link below. Maybe Im stupid or missed something, what state are they in. I see the address with no state..Hmmmm…… No contact person either…Hmmmmm

http://ideadesignstudio.com/

Ron, get your pipe and Sherlock Holmes outfit on. We need to investigate this company more. You may want to drop your scooter, that will be a dead give away who you are.. Remember your a celebrity……..LOL

Something looks strange about this company if its the same one…….

Their blog has not been updated since July 2008 and a number links on the homepage such as Minnesota Invention Congress and Invention tips lead back to their homepage. Their graphics are decent along with their homepage. Curious about their state not being listed and would have liked to see what patents they have written and got approved.

Well looks like the likely state is in fact Florida…

I love a good challenge… ;)

Their toll free interestingly enough is also for a now defunct other invention related business in Florida. Read down to the bottom where the number appears http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/12/prweb4883... and see it on the website here http://ideadesignstudio.com/

Hmmm looks like a move across the hall here with this attempt at a website for one of their licensees… http://buypluglock.com/contactus.html

And a change to .net… http://ideasupport.net/ which interestingly has a link to the original website at the very bottom in the footer.

Registrant:
Idea Design Studio
150 SE 2nd Ave STE 1107
Miami, Florida 33131
United States

John Edwards… Hmmm isn’t that some psychic on TV? LOL

Street view of the Washington Bank Building (Now Chase I imagine) http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&source=hp...

And here is another employee or owner at the same address http://www.corporationwiki.com/Florida/Miami/er...

Hmmm another business run out of the same office… http://www.411.info/business/Florida/Miami/Umbr... Umbrella consulting. Consulting what? LOL how to scam money and change names… ;)

Maybe this office has a high turn around… LOL

Well This guy is defiantly of Baltic descent and I would dare say my fellow Lithuanian as his name is dead ringer “Edward Lakatis” so I would hate for him to be caught up in this mess. http://celebrightlights.com/contactus.html Looks like they set up a couple page website for their licensing deals. How nice… LOL

Nah couldn’t be so easy as to change your name as well… Oh did he now? LOL http://www.linkedin.com/in/jedwardlakatis Ouch that hurts… What is he wanting to hide I wonder?

Boy this guy even sells cigars… http://johnlakatis.blogspot.com/2007/07/havana-...

And his personal blog here http://johnlakatis.blogspot.com/

Must be one of his many licensing deals he has done. http://www.inventbay.com/index.php?option=com_s... I wonder if he has split personalities? LOL

http://www.bbbsoutheastflorida.org/Business-Rep...
Alias: Check
Toll free number: Check
Address: Not the same
A few complaints

Hmmm an unsatisfied customer of project director John Lakatis… http://www.ripoffreport.com/Corrupt-Companies/I... So he once worked for Invent-tech. How interesting indeed. Need we go further after finding that out? LOL This poor Luis lost a big chunk of change here…

Man is this guy ever an entrepreneur… http://www.corporationwiki.com/Florida/Miami/jo... there is the Umbrella Consulting Corp. and Idea Design Studio Group Inc as well as a few others he is associated. Ooooh his Mutual Confidentiality Agreement even… http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache%3...

They filed their Corporation in Florida… Just search for “LAKATIS, JOHN EDWARD”
http://www.sunbiz.org/corioff.html

Okay I’ve seen enough to say that I personally would not call this guy if he were the last agent on earth… That’s just my opinion though ;)

Mr. Ed, I think you summed it up to:

Whoops my bad I clicked on the wrong spelling for definitely… LOL

Well This guy is defiantly of Baltic descent and I would dare say my fellow Lithuanian as his name is dead ringer “Edward Lakatis” so I would hate for him to be caught up in this mess. http://celebrightlights.com/contactus.html Looks like they set up a couple page website for their licensing deals. How nice… LOL

LOL how can you be defiantly of Baltic descent? LOL “He boldly resisted the fact that he was of Baltic descent” LOL

Chris funny image you found there…

Nice job Mr Ed , Ron pass your Sherlock outfit over to Mr. ED he earned it. And yes you can put your motorcycle necklace back on now. Ed sniffed the rat out while you were trying to lift the cycle off your neck.

Ann you need to look at the info Ed found and proceed with caution. I had a bad tastre in my mouth from looking at the web site,,,,,red flags jumped up all over the place……

Maybe the FTC would like to visit there establishment.

Boy I wonder what they charged this poor person for this animated virtual video?
http://celebrightlights.com/index.html
LOL get a load of the music… Wow is that bad…
I would try to contact Jennifer J. Alvarez the inventor and ask her what she thought… Hmmm maybe this is her and you can ask her yourself.
http://www.twittermoms.com/profile/JenniferJAlv...

Probably got the music from the same CD for this one
http://buypluglock.com/home.html
At least this video was a little better…

Hmmm this website is current and not expired
http://www.who.is/whois/ideasupport.net/
There he is changing his name back to John Edwards… That is truly sad as my name is Edward John LOL Tre bizarre.

I really don’t see much by the way of examples of the websites they create for their clients and have to wonder if they even have more than a few.

Still wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them.

As to the name changing I have to wonder if that is all on the up and up. I thought using aliases on legal forms was illegal.

A website needs to have a valid name as well and if he is using an alias that is enough to get a site shut down I think. It is a regulation of ICANN, I believe.

Anybody care to turn him in? (LOL) I am done with my part…
http://www.icann.org/

Oh boy… What luck… William Palomaki the inventor of the plulock is a member of EN.
http://www.edisonnation.com/users/william.palom...
I would ad him as a friend and ask him his thoughts on the subject and what he thought of them.

http://www.patentgenius.com/patent/D607412.html

I quite like his lock and wonder what it will sell for. http://buypluglock.com/home.html

Mr. Ed I tip my hat to your investigative powers. You did an excellent job. If more people did your indepth research less of them would be ripped off. If this was school you would get an A+. : )

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Hey Roger what am I chopped meat, remember I was the one that started the hound dogs down the smelly trail after Ann exposed the company name……….LOL……. I was waiting to find out from Ann if it was the same company before I dug more into it, I would hate to think its the wrong company Ed found the info on……It could be bad publicity if it’s the wrong company.
Actually Roger you were the next one to post after Ann gave the company name, and you didnt check them out. Shame on you……lmao

No Gizmo, you are still the undisputed King of Searches and all that he Surveys. But if you ever decided to step down from the throne Mr. Ed would be a high candidate for your throne and Scepter.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Cute Roger, There is no throne, its bleachers and room for everyone to climb to the top. The more research you can do the better off you are. Learn to be great at it, so it lower’s your chances to get in trouble, especially in this economy. There are way more scammers out there now looking to dig into your pockets……

I just hope its the same company Ann’s dealing with……..

Gizmo…I am not involved in this kind of stuff. You know that song “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”…well Roger took that song to heart as a child…you’d never suspect. Roger is the guy to take care of these things….the smile and the jacket in his picture….everyone in the mob wears a suit…and that same phony smile mobsters have after a hit or something.

Well regardless… If a person changes his name like his underwear something is not Kosher in Denmark.

None of the other companies that I found with “Idea Design Studio” in their name have been anything related to licensing an invention.

If I am completely off about the info I will call up my old CO at MCIA and tell him to throw out all my reports. LOL a decade and a half later no less… ;) Once upon a time I was very good with dirt you could say… ;)

I did a ‘who is’ search on GoDaddy and this is what they show for
http://ideadesignstudio.com/:

Domains by Proxy, Inc. (480) 624-2599 Phone (480) 624-2598 Fax DomainsByProxy.com 15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 United States ideadesignstudio.com@domainsbyproxy.com

Hey Julie that simply means that it was a private registration.

What that means is that if I created a new website and wanted my details private so that nobody could see who I was and where I lived it would show another city, state and contact info for whois I could pay a little extra and they would hide my info.

It is another way to cover ones tracks but I assure you that there is a trail in links which combine all the sites I listed in my previous posts.

Good catch on your part… ;)

Thank you for the enlightenment, Mr. Ed, but darn – I thought I could steal away the Sherlock title.

Julie you would have to pry that title out of Gizmo’s cold dead hands. LOL

http://www.rogerbrown.net

I think you’re right, Roger – and he is a lot younger and stronger but he can’t keep me from THINKING it!

Leaving soon for the West Pack show in Anaheim so will be away from the forums for 4 days: I hope everyone behaves. Well, at least is civil. ;>)

You guys rock! Thanks for all the information. I had decided after reading earlier comments not to proceed and now I’m realllllly glad I didn’t. I’m in AWE. Thanks Roger for the Inventor’s rights info. I feel like I know a little bit about what I’m doing now. Mr. Ed take a bow! Thanks to again everybody.

This is a good place ANN…and the people that run it are A-1 and are in this field for the love of the game…we all are…cause getting rich we all know is a long shot….but we are the people that make things happen…we take a shot…we learn how to be a team….to educate ourselves.

We may not all get great monetary rewards but we get other rewards…and make great friends here because the inventor community has great people that care…..that generally want to help the world.

Not all will make lots of money except the invention hog I call him…Roger Brown…so be extra nice to him…you’ll wanna hit that guy up for a loan one day…he’ll be loaded.

Impressive research guys. It will make me look deeper into things from now on.

Lol Roger…..Julie you can have the title