World Patent Marketing Inc.

Asking for a refund, and being told it was a felony

Inventors paid Scott Cooper and his companies thousands of dollars to patent and market their inventions, persuaded by bogus “success stories” and testimonials. After being strung along for months or years, they did not get what was promised. Many ended up in debt or lost their life savings with nothing to show for it.

The part that sets this case apart is what happened to people who complained. One customer who sought a refund and filed a Better Business Bureau complaint received a letter from the defendants’ lawyer stating that seeking a refund was extortion under Florida law and that, “since you used email to make your threats, you would be subject to a federal extortion charge, which carries a term of imprisonment of up to two years and potential criminal fines.”

The claims in the amended complaint

That the company said clients’ products were sold in numerous “big box” stores, when no such inventions were sold in any brick and mortar store. That it touted licensing deals with “WPM China” involving its manufacturing plant there, when WPM China does not exist and the company has no plant in China. And that it told inventors a review team had to approve their ideas before proceeding, when no such review occurred.

The court’s assessment

Granting a preliminary injunction in August 2017, Judge Darrin P. Gayles wrote that “the record supports a preliminary finding that [the] defendants devised a fraudulent scheme to use consumer funds to enrich themselves.” The asset freeze continued indefinitely and the receiver was made permanent.

The settlement

Cooper and his companies are banned from the invention promotion business, from misrepresenting any good or service, and from suppressing truthful negative reviews. The judgment is $25,987,192, partially suspended when $78,670 in frozen funds transfers to the Commission and Cooper pays $976,330.

In March 2020 the FTC sent 5,503 refunds averaging about $185, totaling more than $1 million.

The FTC credited the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and two Better Business Bureaus.

What is not established

A stipulated final order resolves the allegations without any admission or finding of wrongdoing.