There is a TV advertisement frequently aired on the Discovery Channel and on the Space Channel calling for prospective inventors to call +1-800-996-IDEA or +1-800-243-IDEA, respectively.
I happen to have an invention, inspired by the Discovery Challenge a few years ago, called "HyperFeeder", which I am dreaming to have mass produced.
So, I phoned them up for an application form and then signed a non-disclosure agreement with a company called International Technology Exchange. Although they initially claimed that their source of income is 10% of the royalty that the inventor would get from a manufacturer, they seem to have a variety of other ways to profit from the inventor. This method is strikingly similar to other schemes which were featured in one of the following TV programmes some years ago (I do not recall exactly which one).
CBC Venture
CBC Market Place
CBC Fifth Estate
CTV W-5
As I recall, these schemes praised the invention until they have squeezed all the money they could milk from the inventor, then decided that the invention was not worth pursuing.
The only difference in this case is that the company is based in Ireland. I have received so far 5 international calls to solicit my contract to have them write a "Market Research Report" for $775 CAD. I do not intend to proceed, but if you are interested in finding out how it turns out, I would be willing to pursue it.
Please note that this is not a complaint of any kind against anybody. I believe that the company's practice is perfectly legal. Besides, I do not wish for the Discovery Channel to lose advertisement revenue. Nevertheless, it is a consumer-beware type of situation which could be made clear to innocent inventors.
