Is InventHelp legit? What should inventors use instead?

Invention promotion, meaning companies that charge inventors fees to package, market, and submit ideas to industry, has a documented regulatory history. The FTC has brought enforcement actions against firms in the category and publishes consumer guidance on the warning signs. Congress responded directly with the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999, which requires invention promoters to disclose, before taking your money, how many customers they have served and how many received a net financial gain from the service. The USPTO accepts and publishes complaints against invention promoters on its website, along with any company responses.

None of this makes any individual company illegitimate, and we are not calling any company a scam. It does mean the burden of verification sits with you, and that the law has already built you the tools: ask for the mandated disclosure, read the published complaints, and treat reluctance on either as your answer.

First, fee structure: when large fees are due up front and the company's revenue does not depend on your invention succeeding, the incentive to tell you an idea is promising is structural, whatever the intentions of the people involved. Second, the mandated disclosure: federal law entitles you to the customer-outcome numbers in writing; get them before any payment. Third, a verifiable track record: names of products that reached the market and produced net income for their inventors, checkable beyond the company's own materials. Fourth, a named team: who specifically will do the work, and what they have invented, filed, or sold themselves. Fifth, the contract: exactly what you receive, who owns the work product, and what happens to your money if nothing comes of it.

Pressure is the meta-signal across all five. 'Your idea is hot, sign this week' is a sales technique, not a market assessment. Real evaluations of inventions take time and end with numbers you can interrogate.

For filing, use a registered patent attorney or patent agent, verified on the USPTO's public practitioner roster. Agents are commonly less expensive for straightforward prosecution. If money is tight, the USPTO's Patent Pro Bono Program and Pro Se Assistance Program exist for exactly that situation, and they are free.

For the business questions, whether the invention is worth filing, what it might be worth, and who might license it, use an established consultancy with named people and fixed-scope pricing. Focused consulting analyses commonly start around $5,000 across the market, and a first-pass patent valuation typically starts around the same figure. ipCapital Group, founded in 1998 with more than 2,000 engagements completed, works in exactly that territory. We will be straightforward: most of our work is for companies, and not every independent inventor's situation justifies professional fees. A free discovery call sorts that honestly, and the free calculators on this site cost nothing to try. We are a consultancy, not a law firm, and we do not file patents or take a share of your invention.