Be Careful of Trademark Scams

Be Careful of Trademark Scams

If you file a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office (the “USPTO”), you may receive a letter in the mail from a private company requesting or demanding that you pay them money and respond back to their solicitation. The letter likely will look official and contain (1) a lot of confusing fine print, (2) information about your particular trademark filing, (3) references to various federal statutes, and (4) a request that you send money to a private company. If you receive such a letter, you likely are being targeted with a trademark scam. The USPTO will never send you such a letter, and the USPTO will never require you to send them money unless you or your attorney proactively decide to make an additional filing directly with the USPTO.

If you are unsure whether the letter you’ve received is legitimate, here are three ways to find out whether it is:

• First, you can ask a trademark attorney. If you had an attorney file your application, he or she should be quite familiar with the common trademark scam solicitations.
• Second, you can visit this link on the USPTO’s site, which contains a running list of all the many trademark scam solicitations. As you’ll see on that page, the USPTO notes that “you are never required to use the services offered by these companies.”
• Third, because your trademark application is a public record, you can view all information about your application at any time. A simple way to find that information is to access the USPTO’s trademark search page, click on the “Basic Word Mark Search” option, enter the name of your mark in the search box, and then submit the search. From there you should see a list of trademarks that include yours. You may need to click through the listed trademarks to find yours. Once you do, click on any of the links associated with it, then click the “TSDR” button. A screen will appear with all of the information and records about your trademark filing. If you click on the “documents” tab, you’ll be able to open every document related to your pending application. You certainly will not find any documents in there from any private solicitors because, of course, they are not associated with the USPTO and you need not respond to them.

How your trademark filing should proceed

If an attorney filed your trademark application, all correspondence from the USPTO will be sent directly to him or her as long as the representation continues, and you should never receive any mailings, emails or calls from the USPTO. If there is any issue with your application, the attorney examiner at the USPTO who is assigned to your application will call or email your attorney directly, not you. So, if you receive any mailings, calls or emails, there is a high likelihood that such correspondence is a scam, and you should follow the steps outlined above to determine whether that’s the case.