Recently, many of our clients have received "official
looking" papers from an outfit calling itself the "United
States Trademark Registration Office." At first glance, it
looks like a bill from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for
fees required to maintain your trademark registration. This is a
scam. Do not send any money.
Trademark scams like this are common enough, but this one is
particularly misleading.
Please see the attached example so you can be alert to it.
Scams like this are made to appear to come from the U.S. Patent
& Trademark Office, and usually imply that some fee is due.
Only if you read the fine print will you discover that it is a
solicitation and not a bill. Scammers send out thousands of these
solicitations based on publicly available information from the real
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Unfortunately, a few trademark
owners will pay without realizing that it is a waste of
money.
If your attorney filed your trademark application, the U.S. Patent
& Trademark Office will communicate only with your attorney,
not directly with you. Rest assured, if Godfrey & Kahn, S.C.
filed your trademark application, we will be monitoring your
application for all important deadlines. If you would like to
monitor the marketplace for potentially infringing trademarks, we
can set that up for you using a reputable mark monitoring
service.
Here's the main takeaway: If you receive any communication
about your trademarks from anyone but your attorneys, you should be
suspicious.
If you have questions about your trademarks, please call any of our
Intellectual Property attorneys.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
