For decades, trademark applicants and registrants have suffered a deluge of fraudulent bills and offers, ranging from offers to be included in “international registries;” to offers to renew trademarks at exorbitant rates. Even, in more recent cases, applicants receive phone calls claiming to be from trademark examiners and demanding immediate credit card payments of “response fees” under threat of abandonment of a pending application. These scams have leveraged both the public nature of trademark records and the expectations of applicants and registrants that they can register their marks internationally and that their registrations require maintenance and renewal.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has been vigilant and thorough in combatting these scams, offering not only public education on their website, but providing seminars and trainings on spotting and avoiding these scams. The USPTO also maintains a contact mailbox for reporting scams and, both in collaboration with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and on its own, has pursued and sanctioned multiple scammers for defrauding applicants and registrants with exorbitant filing fees and fees for filings that were never made.
