Posts Tagged: "Made in America"

FTC Stops Deceptive “Made in America” Claims

Under the proposed order, the company is prohibited from claiming that any product is made in the United States unless that product is all or virtually all made in the United States. The company also is prohibited from making any misleading claims about a product’s country of origin and from providing deceptive promotional material to third-party retailers, or otherwise providing the “means or instrumentalities” for others to make deceptive U.S.-origin claims. The company also is required to contact all distributors who bought or received products between January 1, 2010 and May 1, 2013, and provide them with a notice and a copy of the order.

Patented Wake Board Made in America by Inventor Company

Licensing is relatively easy and potentially less risk financially and less time consuming, but licensing also has its negatives. So I went to Surf Expo with my wife to help us decide what to do… At the tradeshow, we found that the President of the Water Sports Industry Association loved our product, but he warned us that if we were to license this product into the existing market that what we would find was two-fold: one, they wouldn’t do it with the same heart, they wouldn’t have the same passion as the inventors and the team that created it and, two, they wouldn’t potentially invest the right amount of money into it and in some cases they may actually bury the product concept and prevent it from coming into the market, because they may see our product as competition to their market. It could have a potentially negative impact on say kneeboards. I was warned to stay away from licensing, in this particular case, and if we really wanted to see it grow, to go full-time into it. So I asked my two friends if they really wanted to take this on and I would be their mentor as they go through the process of beginning a company. So that took the stress off of me. I gave them equity in the new venture, which owned a full utility patent. They showed what they were made of and created a very successful business with a simple concept, “to help lots of people enjoy their time on the water!”