Is this an investment scam?

Me and my parents invested into a local company in 2017, it was a 1 on 1 with the “founder/ceo” taking investment into his company/project. We basically gave him x amount of money for x amount of “shares” but all we received was a printed letter with the company’s logo. It’s a letter with a LLC company that the person owned saying we invested x amount of money for x amount of shares. He advertised having the patents to a technology that was gonna get big. After investing, we participated in investment meetings in which the company informed us how and what they’re doing, but they were advertising themselves as a different company, basically a different company that is also owned by the same person but doesn’t own the patent but is “licensed” to use the technology. Basically the shares of the company “licensed” to use the technology is growing in value and I’m wondering if owning the shares to the company that owns the patent means anything? I feel like it was an intentional scam to invest in a “fake” company so the person can use the money for a different company they owned.