Beware of Trademark Scams

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During the week of July 31 the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) co-hosted with the Trademark Public Advisory Committee of the Federal Trade Commission  (FTC) a public roundtable on misleading or fraudulent advertisements for trademark services and to brainstorm new ideas for tackling this growing problem.  The USPTO was represented by Mary Denison, Commissioner for Trademarks, and Joe Matal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property.  Also present at the roundtable were representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Small Business Administration (SBA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).  These scams are real and popular.  I always tell my clients to first confer with me before paying for any trademark services, including services that appear to be from the USPTO itself.

What are trademark scams?  Denison, on her blog post wrote:

Trademark scams range from offers to file renewal and maintenance documents, to offers to record marks with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to monitoring services, to recordation in useless databases. Some of the scammers take consumers’ money and deliver nothing. For instance, during the roundtable, the American Intellectual Property Law Association cited an example of a restaurant that mistakenly paid a scammer to file maintenance documents for a registration. The restaurant relied on the assumption that the filing would be made. Only when the restaurant sought legal counsel about enforcement against an infringer did it learn that the scammer filed nothing and the registration had been cancelled. Others scammers actually perform work but at exorbitant prices. One speaker at the roundtable had filed three civil law suits against different scammers.

When I file a trademark application or mail to a client a certificate received from the USPTO I always warn them of these fraudulent solicitations.  The USPTO has a web page dedicated to this problem and has even produced an 8 minute video describing the problem and giving examples that you may watch below.

I would also like to add that patent owners face the same problem with scams as do trademark owners. Always be careful with companies that promise to promote your invention!

If you have received a solicitation for any trademark or patent related service you should consider it suspect even if the service appears to be legitimate.  At the least contact me before paying for the service being solicited or call the USPTO Trademark Assistance Center at 800-786-9199 or the FTC Help Line at 877-FTC-HELP.    You may also visit the following websites:

• USPTO - Campaign to Counter Patent Scams
• USPTO - Fraudulent Solicitations to Trademark Owners
• USPTO - Informational page of the USPTO website on trademark solicitations.
• USPTO - Protect Your Innovation: Avoid Scams
• USPTO - Scam Prevention
• FTC - Government Imposter Scams
• FTC - Scammers can be inventive