If You Register Your Cannabis Trademark, Beware of Scams

We hear from clients on a regular basis who receive fraudulent notices pertaining to their U.S. federal trademark applications, and because we’ve seen an uptick in these scams over the last month, we thought it would be prudent to publish a PSA on the topic, together with what to look out for if you are a trademark applicant or owner.

These trademark scams often come in the form of an official-looking letter or invoice requesting payment related to the trademark application. These letters can come via mail or via email, are formatted to look like an official government document, and list specific details about your trademark application, including an image of your trademark. All of this is public information and readily available, for better or worse, to potential scammers.

A client of ours recently received a letter from a company called Trademark Selection, Inc. that requested a “Registration Fee” of USD 1,360. The letter also provided wire instructions to an account in Florida, and in very fine print at the bottom stated, “By paying the indicated amount you accept this offer that will approve listing this information in the ‘TM SELECTION 2018 / The International Trade Marks and Service Marks’ catalogs.” This letter is a scam.

For clients that utilize our firm for their trademark filings, all correspondence related to those filings come directly from us. We pay filing fees and invoice our clients accordingly. No official U.S. federal trademark-related correspondence will ever come from an agency other than the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Some of these third-party letters include official-sounding words, like “Trademark,” “Patent,” “Registration,” “Agency” or “Office.” Most of them, if you read the fine print, provide for worthless services like those stated above in the Trademark Selection letter, or may offer to provide you updates on renewal deadlines (something you’ve probably already paid your trademark attorney to do). Some of them list no services at all.

Unfortunately, because these notices can look quite official, some companies end up paying them, believing they are legitimate. If you do receive third-party correspondence, it’s always best to check in with your trademark attorney, but chances are, you can and should disregard it.

Here are a few of the companies we’ve seen fraudulent notices from lately:

• Trademark Selection, Inc.
• Patent and Trademark Institute
• Register of Protected Patents and Trademarks
• ITP Service
• S. Trademark Compliance Office
• ITR Register
• Trademark Edition Ltd.
• TPP Trademark & Patent Publications

And this list only scratches the surface of what is out there in terms of trademark scams. Again, official correspondence will come from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) with an address in Alexandria, Virginia, or will come directly from your trademark attorney. If you receive any official emails, they will come from the domain “@uspto.gov.” If you ever receive one of these suspicious notices, you should contact your intellectual property attorney immediately. The USPTO is also available to answer questions regarding the status of your application.