Today I received an email from an overseas client who recently received a trademark solicitation that they thought was from the USPTO and which warned of expiration (misleadingly) and Renewal on April 5, 2019. Needless to say, the client was very concerned.
For the sake of this example of a misleading and perhaps even intentionally misleading trademark notice intended to look official is a redacted (for client anonymity) version of this solicitation:
Tellingly, this solicitation references a false Registration Date of April 5, 2010. Even the Filing Date shown on this solicitation is also false.
*** The actual Registration Date is April 5, 2011. ***
Thus, the renewal period does not begin until April 5, 2020 (not April 5, 2019).
There is a proliferation of these trademark solicitations and/or trademark scams being mailed to USPTO trademark applicants and registrants as indicated in our two previous recent blog posts.
This particular solicitation takes it one step closer to fraud with its listing of:
• a false Filing Date;
• a false Registration Date; and
• a false Renewal Date.
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Applicants, Registrants, and Counsel need to be aware of these on-going trademark solicitations which are designed to look official and timed to elicit a false sense of urgency.
Be careful out there.
Respectfully submitted,
William E. Maguire,
Santa Monica, Calif.
www.tmesq.com
*** This blog post is not intended as legal advice. ***
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2 comments:
Interesting post! Did you know online trademark registration is super easy and safe? It is also very affordable!
rlbw
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