Pierre Balmain v EUIPO: the distinctiveness of a figurative mark consisting of a lion’s head
11th March 2024
The EUIPO has revealed that there is a new misleading invoice campaign being run at present. The scam takes the form of a fake EUTM renewal invoice claiming to be issued by the office, and even contains the EUIPO’s logo, name, acronym and address.
The scam includes a demand for a registration and entry fee to be transferred to a specific bank account.
The warning from the EUIPO comes with the following important reminder – that the “EUIPO never sends invoices or demands for payment of money to its users. If you receive a demand for money for anything to do with your trade mark by post or email, it does not come from us. Even if it uses our logo, and appears to be official, it does not come from us”.
We hope that none of our clients have been affected by this scam, and advise that vigilance always be used when reviewing all correspondence from EUIPO.
The EUIPO’s full article is on their website here.