A rude Jolt for a creator

Mark Robinson was watching television when he got a rude jolt – his invention, Jolt My Car, had appeared on screen under a different name, marketed by a different company.

Robinson had spent more than two years developing Jolt My Car, which turns a phone into a dashboard camera that can record accidents and instantly send details to an insurer.

Robinson said he pitched the idea of Jolt My Car to Aviva at a meeting in November 2015, with 12 of Aviva’s most senior managers.

But Aviva said it was not interested.

Aviva then launched Aviva Drive dashcam, which has features which Robinson claims are identical to Jolt My Car.

The app is free for all motorists.

Jolt My Car’s business model was to license the app to insurance companies so that they could distribute it free to customers, and thereby reduce insurance fraud, provide instant first notice of loss and speed up claims.

The company’s founders said they invested two years and used their savings and sold property to raise £1 million to develop Jolt.

An Aviva spokesman reportedly said, “Aviva has developed our own dash cam technology to meet our customers’ needs most effectively. The use of smartphones for crash detection and dashcams is not unique to Jolt My Car My Car or something they own, so we categorically reject their allegation.”

Aviva also said the introductory meeting with Jolt My Car was more than two years ago and played no part in the development of its dashcam.

It said it did not receive any assets such as designs or code.

Jolt My Car said on their Facebook page: “We have decided to fight Aviva after they ripped off our technology.”

But it did not mention how they would fight Aviva.

They have a video on their Facebook page explaining the issue of how a multinational company like Aviva is ripping off a small company, requesting the viewer to share the video if they agree with them.

The latter part of the video is basically an introduction to the features of Jolt My Car.

It is tricky to have peace of mind before you step into a room for a pitch.

And when you accuse them of stealing your ideas later on, it is convenient for big companies and government agencies to claim amnesia. Protect your intellectual property and go for pitches with ease of mind with PitchMark.