Don't Be a Mark for Trademark Scams
Registering and protecting trademarks is an important part of business. As most savvy business owners know, it is prudent to promptly respond to or perform required actions set forth by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Unfortunately, this attitude is causing a new breed of scammer to capitalize on these responsible trademark owners.
What is Happening?
There is a growing list of companies who are sending solicitations to registered trademark owners. These solicitations either demand fees or offer useless services related to registered trademarks. One common example is a letter saying that your trademark is about to expire and demanding fees to maintain your trademark. These letters will often have the correct dates for required maintenance fees, but once a trademark owner writes them a check, they take the money and never pay the maintenance fees. Another common scam is providing official notices requesting fees to remain on a private register. For example, a company called the World Patent and Trademark Register sends out an official invoice informing trademark owners that they need to pay renewal fees to remain on the WPT Register. These renewal fees are often $2,000 or more. Here’s the catch, the World Patent and Trademark Register is not recognized by any government body and has no legal significance to your trademark registration. These entities strike indiscriminately, see the example below of a letter sent to our office for one of our firm’s registered trademarks. If these entities will attempt to scam trademark attorneys, they will attempt to scam you.
How Can I Tell?
There are some telltale signs that the solicitation you received is not legitimate. First, all correspondence from the USPTO will be from “United States Patent and Trademark Office” in Alexandria, Virginia. Check both the name and city because another common scammer is the “Patent & Trademark Office” located in New York, New York. Keep in mind that registration dates, numbers, owners, and deadlines are all available to the public. Just because a notice has the correct registration number and deadline, does not mean that it is a legitimate notice.
For email correspondence, all genuine email correspondence will be from a @USPTO.gov domain. You should never pay a fee or otherwise transfer money over email. All fee payments made online should be made directly on the USPTO’s secure site. If someone is asking for your credit card information over email, it is a scam.
What Should I Do?
First and foremost, do not pay fees by email or send money directly through any notice that looks suspicious. Next, the easiest way to check the status of your trademark is online at the USPTO Trademark Status and Document Retrieval (tsdr.uspto.gov). This site will provide the date of any upcoming deadlines and tasks required to maintain your mark. You can also look at the USPTO’s website for misleading notices, which provides recent examples of trademark scammers that the USPTO is aware of. If you have any concerns, contact a trademark attorney. Trademark attorneys will be able to tell, almost immediately, if what you have received is legitimate or not. They will also be able to provide guidance if there are any valid actions required to register or maintain your trademark.
Bottom Line
Protect your trademark and your wallet, by being on the lookout for these misleading solicitations. As scammers get more efficient at looking official, it becomes harder each day to identify scams. Stay sharp and don’t be a mark.
