News & Publications
News
11 March 2010
WARNING: Unsolicited Mail About Unofficial Registration and Renewal Services
We want to warn clients against responding to unsolicited mail inviting or requiring you to pay registration or renewal fees for your trade marks, patents or designs.
Fees paid for listing in a private register
The first type of notice which you should be aware of requires payment of so-called "registration fees". However, when paid, the fees only result in entries being made in various publications and "registers" which sound official but which are in fact private and have no connection with the official patent and trade mark registers.
These notices tend to arrive in the form of invoices, which are usually sent out after the publication of the official patent, trade mark or design application, and which refer to your application using the correct number. Again, you should be aware that these registers are not linked to any Government or European Community institution and there is no obligation to pay the requested fees.
The unsolicited renewal fee request
The second type of notice is for payment of renewal fees. Some of our clients have reported receiving such notices in recent months, where the correspondence appears to require the recipient to respond directly to pay a renewal fee, usually at an exorbitant cost, and with no guarantee that the organisation will take on responsibility for the timely renewal or maintenance of the registration.
Our advice
In almost all cases, genuine correspondence relating to your patent, trade mark and design rights will come from us. Very occasionally, however, official correspondence may be sent direct to an applicant from an official source such as OHIM, the EPO, the USPTO, WIPO or some other government or international organisation.
We would advise that you take the following steps:
- If you receive a letter or invoice in relation to your intellectual property rights from anyone other than ourselves, please check carefully what is being offered to you and whether you can be sure that it comes from an official source (e.g. the OHIM, WIPO or the EPO). If you have any doubt at all, do not sign or return the form to the sender. Please send it to us and we can advise, at no cost, whether it is in fact genuine and if so, what action needs to be taken.
- Be aware that these unsolicited notices and invoices often have what appear to be official-looking crests and emblems on their headed paper, yet they are not in any way connected with the official authorities who grant patent or trade mark protection. It is very common for scam letters to use logos which include stars arranged in a circle like the official EU flag.
- If you are unsure you can find numerous examples of this type of correspondance on the OHIM website or the WIPO website, or this warning on the EPO website.
Again, if you have any doubts, and before you acknowledge the letter or pay any fees to third parties, please contact us for advice. We are always happy to advise whether such correspondance is genuine, at no charge to our clients.
