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It has long been a maxim of economics that if there is an opportunity to make money, than someone will eventually seize that opportunity. Unfortunately, this tenet equally applies to the world of fraud. As business’ and entrepreneurs increasingly recognize the value of trademarks and trade-names to identify their goods/services and help build brand recognition and loyalty among consumers in the ever-competitive marketplace, they have also been more eager to protect that value, which has opened the door for trademark scammers to attempt to take advantage of that zeal. Indeed, the alarm regarding trademark scams has even been raised by the USPTO itself, which has received an increasingly significant number of complaints from trademark registrants/applicants who have been solicited by trademark scammers.
Trademark scam artists work both on the local and international level but generally use the same methods to dupe unsuspecting trademark owners or applicants. Trademark scammers will form a private company with a name that is often intentionally designed to give unwary targets the impression that they are dealing with a government agency or a branch of the USPTO itself. Some company names that have been used in the past include Trademark and Patent Office, Trademark Registration and Monitoring Office and United States Trademark Registration Office. These companies will further attempt to mimic the appearance of a government agency by imitating the look and feel of official government documents in their forms and letterhead by using seals, government jargon, and emphasizing government data (such as filing dates and USPTO application serial numbers) that are publicly available.
Do you think he doesn’t know that the ski-mask is unnecessary or is he just trying to look cool?
Under this guise, trademark scammers will search the USPTO’s public databases to find trademark owners/applicants to target and then solicit them via email or regular mail. Typically, these solicitations will offer to perform, for a fee, a variety of legitimate sounding trademark-related services, including 1) registration (both local and international); 2) renewal; 3) trademark searches; 4) trademark monitoring services (where the scammer offers to search for confusingly similar marks or other potential infringement activities) and 5) reminder services that promise to notify trademark holders ahead of time when important actions such as renewals are due. Scammers may further attempt to prey on trademark owners’ fears by telling them that they need act now or risk the expiration/loss of protection for their trademark and thus potentially duping the trademark owner to believing that they are paying required fees to the USPTO. The fees charged for these ‘services’ are often exorbitant, and the services performed, if any, are often sub-par compared to that which could be provided by an actual trademark attorney. One scammer charged for $375 to register a mark with the U.S. Customers and Border Protection (CBP) bureau, a legitimate activity that the CBP charges only $190 for a 20 year term. Another scammer solicited targets with an offer to include their marks in a dubious ‘international catalog of trademarks’ (which would provide no protection benefits) for the low-cost of $2800!
The USPTO has not been blind to the existence of these trademark scams, and has taken active steps to educate trademark registrants/applicants about their existence by publishing warning notices and posting an exemplary list of company names which they have received complaints about (including solicitation form examples) on the USPTO website. Although they cannot help victims pursue a refund of funds paid to a scammer, the USPTO is asking that complaints with copies of the solicitation notice still be sent to them so that it may maintain an up to date list of companies for the public’s awareness. However, the USPTO itself does not have any enforcement or other prosecutor power to go after trademark scammers itself, and thus leaving those who have fallen victim to such scams, to turn to the consumer protection authorities in their respective states.
Trademark scams are unlikely to go away, and thus, as it is with many scams, the best defense is for the individual trademark holder or applicant to be vigilant and wary of these schemes.
Here are some practical steps to protect yourself from trademark scams:
1. Consider the source. If a communication is actually an official communication from the USPTO, it will be designated as being from the “United States Patent and Trademark Office” in Alexandria, VA. Similarly, emails will always be from the domain name “@uspto.gov.” Consider also doing a quick internet search on the company name or comparing it to the list of company names the USPTO maintains.
2. Read communications offering trademark-related services carefully. As a legal trick, a solicitation will usually disclose somewhere that it is not a bill or a communication from the government, while elsewhere masquerading as such.
3. If still in doubt whether offered services are legitimate or would actually provide added trademark protection, contact an attorney.
Disclaimer: This blog and its posts are provided for informational purposes only and shall not be construed as legal advice nor does it create an attorney-client relationship.
Highway to the Danger Zone of Trademarks and Copyrights 