Invention Submission Corporation v. Gene Quinn & IP Watchdog (N.D.N.Y.)
Plaintiff, “InventHelp” is the most recent DBA name of the Invention Submission Corporation. Defendant, Gene Quinn runs the IPWatchdog.com website and works with the same type of individual-inventor clients as InventHelp. The following two statements are taken directly from the InventHelp website:
From 2003 to 2005, we signed submission agreements with 6,592 clients. As a result of our services, 119 clients have received license agreements for their products, and 15 clients have received more money than they paid us for these services.
From 2006-2008, we signed Submission Agreements with 5,692 clients. As a result of our services, 94 clients have received license agreements for their products, and 21 clients have received more money than they paid us for these services.
During the 2003–2008 time period, fewer than 1 out of 300 InventHelp clients “received more money than they paid [to InventHelp] for these [invention promotion] services.”
For years, Gene Quinn has been writing about InventHelp and arguing that the company is “one of the most notorious of all invention scams.” Now, the company has sued Quinn (and his wife) under the Lanham Act for providing a “misleading representation of fact … in commercial advertising or promotion…”; for defamation (apparently under NY Law?); for trade libel; and for interference with prospective clients.
