WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced May 10 that Scott Cooper and his companies, World Patent Marketing Inc. and Desa Industries Inc., will settle allegations of customer deception and accept a ban on participating in the invention promotion industry.
According to allegations, the defendants ran a scam in which they would dupe consumers into paying thousands of dollars for invention patent and marketing services. The defendants would purportedly gain consumer trust through bogus “success stories” and testimonials. According to the FTC, the defendants never delivered on what they promised, causing consumers to go into debt and sometimes lose their life savings.
A $25,987,192 judgment against the defendants is partially suspended, so long as they pay $78,670 in frozen funds and Cooper himself pays $976,330. The FTC notes that the full judgment amount will become due immediately if it finds out the defendants misrepresented their financial condition.
The FTC voted 2-0 to approve the proposed stipulated final order, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.