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October 2018, updated December 21, 2022
A number of potentially misleading solicitations have been circulating, in which trademark applicants or registrants receive an official looking letter from a seemingly official organization. See the USPTO notice. Buyer beware. Unfortunately, these fraudulent solicitations continue to propagate, and to catch unsuspecting businesses in their wake.
They may look official, including phrases like “Patent and Trademark Bureau,” or “International Patent and Trademark Agency,” etc. These letters normally request money (which can be a significant amount), may suggest urgency, and it is easy to be misled that these requests are a genuine part of the application or renewal process. We have attached several examples of these notices to this Client Alert, below.
These companies use the public information available in the various databases of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the “USPTO”) and international systems like those provided by the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”). They use trademark application and registration information to send official looking solicitations asking you to pay for different services, including registration in a private registry, or assistance with renewal of your registration. Unfortunately, these almost always are scams, and should be dealt with by presuming a zero trust approach, i.e., presume the solicitation is fraudulent, until you can verify independently the validity of the solicitation. Often, they have incorrect or partially incorrect data, such as the dates of registration renewal or the dates of another deadline, attempting to masquerade as valid. They also charge
substantially higher fees than the law requires, for often, unnecessary or non-existent services. Only accept notices and other correspondence that comes from the USPTO, from its Alexandria, Virginia office, or with an email address of “@uspto.gov” or from your attorney. Also, please do not make any payment in connection with your trademark application or registration unless you confirm it through our firm. If you are in any doubt about anything you receive in relation to your trademark applications or registrations, please let us know and we would be happy to advise you further. Also note, that the USPTO encourages you to contact us to help identify whether it is a scam or not, and to let the USPTO know to allow them to inform others by emailing them at TMScams@uspto.govand to consider filing a consumer complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), which investigates these fraudulent solicitations, and if you unfortunately are scammed, or a consumer complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
See example of images of past Trademark scams below.
DISCLAIMER. This Client Alert does not provide legal advice. We are providing it for general informational purposes only.
