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You've probably seen the cartoon caveman about to chisel a stone wheel on InventHelp's late night TV advertisements.
Julie Zanotti of Putnam Valley and Ronese Brooks of Yonkers saw the ads and were inspired to submit their invention ideas. But now the would-be inventors say it was they who were chiseled.
They claim that InventHelp bilked them and many others into paying millions of dollars for invention promotion services that were not provided. They are demanding $36 million in damages in a class-action lawsuit filed on Jan. 25 in state Supreme Court in Westchester. They are being represented by Julie Pecherski Plitt of Oxman Law Group in White Plains.
InventHelp did not respond to a request for comment.
The Pittsburgh company's website promotes itself as the "honest invention company."
"Our approach Ls straightforward and does not mislead ; or misinform," the company states. "This is what separates us from unscrupulous, double-talking organizations who profess to 'help' inventors."
The women describe themselves as naive, aspiring inventors who were lured by slick TV and internet advertisements, assured that their ideas were unique, told that their inventions were potentially lucrative and offered the means to ļ making their ideas real.
They claim they were strung along by a series of seemingly independent entities that were actually acting in concert, including promotion companies, a money lender, patent attorneys, licensing companies, manufacturers and distribution companies.
The web of companies "created the impression that they have...