Our office often receives scam trademark and corporate notices through the US Postal Service. Because of the prevalence of such scams, you should always read what appear to be official notices extremely carefully.
Scam requests typically look like invoices or letters, often containing false due dates or threats about loss of rights if you do not send payment now.
Sometimes the filings and services mentioned in these communications are completely unnecessary. If the filings or services are required, the price offered by the scammer is often exorbitant, or the services offered by the scammer are insufficient to satisfy legal requirements.
Scams can be hard to identify, because scammers often use names and logos that are similar to official state and federal agencies. Even the envelopes may contain language designed to make you believe you’re holding an official communication.
Unfortunately, it’s easy for scammers to obtain enough specific information about your company or intellectual property to appear to be real government offices and registries. This is because many corporate and trademark filings are publicly available online.
This means you must be extremely careful when you receive any type of request for payment. You shouldn’t, however, simply throw away requests you’re not sure about since they may actually be from a government office or official registry. In that event, ignoring the request may lead to loss of your rights.
If you’re not sure about a particular notice, you can do an internet search for more information about that request or contact our office for assistance.
Business Filings
Sometimes a scammer indicates that it’s monitoring your company’s corporate or business license filings. Although the notices may look like formal government documents, they’re not.
The scammer will offer to assist you in renewing your registration, filing your annual report, or preparing meeting minutes that don’t contain all relevant information for fees that are much higher than normal.
For example, last fall, our office received notices bearing the heading “2021 – ANNUAL REPORT INSTRUCTION FORM.” The form contains a variety of information that the scammer obtained through the Oregon Business Registry on the Oregon Secretary of State’s website, including the company’s name, address, registry number, registered agent, and principals.
The form then quotes the Oregon statute requiring filing of annual reports and states that if the receiving entity “does not file an annual report within 45 days after the due date, it may be at risk for penalties.”
If you read the entire form carefully, you’ll see that the notice also includes the following sentences which, despite being in all caps, are inconspicuous and likely to go unread:
“W.C.S. IS NOT A GOVERNMENT AGENCY AND DOES NOT HAVE A CONTRACT WITH ANY GOVERNMENTAL AGENCY TO PROVIDE THIS SERVICE.”
“THE STATE OF OREGON ANNUAL REPORT CAN BE FILED DIRECTLY WITH THE STATE FOR THE STATUTORY FEE.”
Trademarks
We recently received a “REMINDER” from “Patent & Trademark Bureau.” The official-looking notice states that the specified trademark “is about to expire” and goes on to say, “Sign and return this document in order to renew your trademark.”
In smaller print and at the end of a long paragraph is the information that:
“Patent & Trademark Bureau is a private business that is not endorsed by the U.S. government. Patent & Trademark Bureau provides the expertise that modern businesses need to navigate the Patent and Trademark Office’s registration and renewal process. This renewal is optional and only acts as a reminder.”
There are many other types of trademark scams. For example, not long ago, we received a number of “Trademark Publication” invoices from WTP Service. The notice contains the trademark at issue, the date of application, the application number, and the class of goods/services — and a claim that $1,420 is owed within 10 days.
While this notice appears to be related to a recent trademark registration application, it is actually a scam. The fine print states:
“We offer you the registration of your brand in our private database www.wtf-register.com….
“Please note that this private publication is not linked to the publication of official notifications and is not a registration of government organizations….
“This is not an invoice. You are not required to pay the above amount, unless you accept this offer.”
The problem of trademark-related scams is so pervasive that the Trademark Office actually has an alert on its website listing known scams. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) also maintains a list of scams.
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Carefully read any letter or notice you receive. Scam notices often say outright that they are not official government notices. Be very suspicious of any robocall or unexpected email, text, or letter you receive that asks for money or personal information. Do an online search to see if it’s a scam.
Please feel free to contact us for assistance if you still aren’t able to tell if a notice or call is real.
