Fraud related to trademark registration

Unfortunately, this has recently been accompanied by an increasingly common and very dangerous phenomenon: attempts to extort fees.

It is worth being aware of the threats and of the ways to protect yourself against them so that you can effectively benefit from the protection available to you.

The mechanism of this fraud is very simple. In the first step, the fraudsters obtain the trademark owner's data once the application is made public (in the Bulletin of the Patent Office or the EUIPO Bulletin).

They then obtain the trademark owner's data after the application has been made public and use it.

For services related to trademark registration, applicants receive invoices (usually for very high amounts) or letters demanding payment of enormous sums.

These documents look very similar to official correspondence.

So how can you check whether the documents you have received are not an extortion attempt?

First and foremost, you should check who the sender is.

In these seemingly authentic-looking letters, the fraudsters do not impersonate an EU body but instead invent fictitious institution names such as “European Office Intellectual Property” or “International Patent and Trade Mark Office”.

Misleading invoices: the EUIPO has published a list of companies or registers sending misleading invoices, along with scans of such invoices (the list is available here).

The services on this list are not connected with the official registration of trademarks by the EUIPO, and the EUIPO clearly indicates that it never sends applicants invoices or any other letters demanding payment of a fee for services.

Unfortunately, similar fraud attempts also concern the European Patent Office (EPO).

Fraud at the patent office: attempts to extort money from entities that have filed applications to register trademarks also occur here in Poland.

The mechanism is fairly similar and is initiated by filing an application with the UPRP.

From the trademark register available online, the fraudsters obtain information about our addresses and direct payment demands to us.

Quite often, the payment demand indicates a bank account outside Poland and the amount is given in euros, which should draw additional attention to a possible fraud attempt.

Bear in mind that the Patent Office has a single bank account and collects fees only in Polish zloty.

Recommendations: the most important and simplest mechanism for defending against this type of misleading invoice is reading the correspondence that reaches us carefully.

Always verify the sender! There is only one European Union Intellectual Property Office

and one Patent Office of the Republic of Poland.

Both offices encourage and enable all fees to be paid during the filing of the application, through the appropriate payment gateways.

In most cases, therefore, no one will ask you to pay additional fees.

Summary: remember that if you are represented by a professional attorney, it is they who should receive all the correspondence in the proceedings, and it should not be sent directly to you!

If that does happen, it is an alarming signal.

Before paying any invoice or demand for payment, consult your attorney about it.

Next, pay attention to the account number (and compare it with the one on the website of the office concerned) and to the currency indicated on the invoice.

You can also always contact the office to which you are submitting your application.

It is worth reacting, because both the Polish and the European office cooperate with law enforcement authorities and banks, blocking dishonest operators who attempt to extort funds.

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