John Lewis from Hereford saw a television advertisement for the International Technology Exchange, promoting a free inventors kit. 

He rang to enquire as he had an idea for an invention, and was attracted by the promise of a marketing report on his idea. 

For £385, Mr Lewis received the report, which included a preliminary search for patents of similar ideas. 

It revealed that there were two other patents for similar ideas to John’s - both in the US. Encouragingly though, the ITE described his invention as "an intriguing product concept". ITE told John that it would be happy to promote his invention for £4,850. 

However, John didn’t realise until later - there were already at least another 34 patents for his idea. 

The Chartered Institute of Patent Agents looked at the report, and in its view John’s invention has a very slim chance of being manufactured in its present form. 

John McHugh from Grimsby paid for the ITE promotion package. For £4,850, he received a crate of printed stationary, product portfolios and names and addresses of potential manufacturers. ITE promised that John would receive more help, once a manufacturer showed interest. 

John’s idea was a product to rid your toilet of smells, but out of the 100 names of manufacturers given to John, 56 had nothing to do with toilets. 

Britain’s most celebrated inventor, Trevor Bayliss has achieved success for his ideas without the help of promotion companies like the ITE. His advice for viewers of Weekend Watchdog is to ask for ten examples of inventors the company has helped and then contact them directly. 

ITE says it has thousands of clients and virtually no complaints. The company also says that it cannot guarantee that an inventors idea will be successful. It says that many of the procedures for promoting a new product are the same, regardless of the idea, hence the reports are similar. ITE says gives customers ten days to return the marketing report if they are not satisfied. ITE also says it has given John McHugh a refund of £3,000. 

The following contacts are useful for inventors hoping to get their ideas off the ground: 

http://www.innovation.gov.uk/

Institute of Patentees and Inventors:
http://www.invent.org.uk/

For advice about patenting contact: 

The Patent Office Central Enquiry Unit:
http://www.patent.gov.uk/

Inventors can search over 44 million patent documents for free at The British Library. For further information call 0207 412 7919. 

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This week's Watchdog reports

This week's Weekend Watchdog reports