The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued warnings about “Non-USPTO Solicitations That May Resemble Official USPTO Communications.” For an example of such a solicitation, click here. Note that, in the example, the “Patent & Trademark Office” is located at 299 Park Avenue in New York City; the real USPTO is located in Alexandria, Virginia, however, and any correspondence that comes from it will clearly say "United States Patent and Trademark Office" and have a return address in Alexandria. If the name and address on a document does not match these standards, then it is most likely not from the real USPTO.

Additionally, there are several foreign companies that send non-official “Trademark Office” solicitations to have your trademark application/registration either “registered” in their Internet database for a year or “published” in their catalog or book of international trademarks. Neither the offered database “registration” nor book “publication” provides trademark owners with any actual trademark rights or protections in any country. This example was sent from a company in the Czech Republic.

Additional examples are located on the USPTO website. As the agency states:

“Please be aware that private companies not associated with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) often use trademark application and registration information from the USPTO's databases to mail or e-mail trademark-related solicitations. Trademark applicants and registrants continue to submit a significant number of inquiries and complaints to the USPTO about such solicitations, which may include offers: (1) for legal services; (2) for trademark monitoring services; (3) to record trademarks with U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and (4) to "register" trademarks in the company's own private registry.

These companies may use names that resemble the USPTO name, including, for example, one or more of the terms "United States," "U.S.," "Trademark," "Patent," "Registration," "Office," or "Agency." Increasingly, some companies attempt to make their solicitations mimic the look of official government documents rather than the look of a typical commercial or legal solicitation by emphasizing official government data like the USPTO application serial number, the registration number, the International Class(es), filing dates, and other information that is publicly available from USPTO records. Many refer to other government agencies and sections of the U.S. Code. Most require "fees" to be paid.”

This alert was written by David R. Schaffer, a principal in the Intellectual Property & Technology practice group at Miles & Stockbridge in the firm’s Tysons Corner, Virginia and Washington, D.C., offices.

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