Invention Marketing Firm Files Defamation Suit Against Rival
New York, Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- An invention marketing firm says a rival defamed it by claiming on a Web site that the firm had been named in a lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission.
Advent Product Development Inc. says in a lawsuit that North Dakota patent lawyer Michael Neustel made defamatory comments about Advent on a Web site.
The Web site -- run by the National Inventor Fraud Center Inc., a rival company that Neustel owns -- supplies information about invention-promotion firms.
Pawleys Island, South Carolina-based Advent says Neustel asserted that Advent had settled a case with the Federal Trade Commission over suspect business practices.
``Advent has never been involved in any lawsuit, let alone settled any lawsuit, with the FTC,'' Advent's complaint says.
Fargo, North Dakota-based NIFC also is named as a defendant. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in New York.
Advent's lawyer, Nicholas Gravante, said his client in 1998 purchased assets from another invention-promotion firm, National Invention Service Inc. of Cranford, New Jersey. Those assets included leases, he said.
A year earlier, NISI had settled a suit with the FTC in which it agreed to disclose that none of its nearly 1,000 clients had made more money from their inventions than they had paid to NISI to patent and promote them.
False Hope
NISI and Advent are separate companies, Gravante said. He said Advent makes sure inventors understand how hard it is to profit from their creations.
``It does not sell false hope,'' Gravante said of Advent. ``People are told just what a long shot it is. It's like buying a lottery ticket.''
He added that inventors are also informed, ``If you don't try, you'll never know.''
In an interview, Neustel said his company had inadvertently left Advent on a portion of the Web site entitled ``Bad Guys'' after Advent complained. Still, Neustel said he believed Advent and NISI were in fact the same company.
Privately held Advent has offices in eight states, including New York, Texas, and California.
Nov/01/2000 15:25 ET
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