WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced June 8 that it has amended its complaint against the operators of an invention-promotion scheme, World Patent Marketing (WPM).
According to the FTC, WPM allegedly deceived consumers and suppressed complaints about the company. It purportedly went as far as threatening dissatisfied customers with criminal prosecution. In the agency’s initial complaint against the defendants filed in March, it charged that consumers paid thousands of dollars to the defendants to have their inventions patented and marketed. The FTC maintains these consumers did so based off bogus “success stories” touted by WPM.
In its amended complaint, the FTC charges WPM told clients it would sell their products in popular “big box” stores but failed to actually do so. Additionally, the company touted licensing deals with “WPM China,” which does not exist.
The defendants’ scheme has been temporarily halted by a federal court in Miami, Florida.
The FTC voted 2-0 to amend the complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on May 25.