Small brand owners and self-proprietors are often the target of intellectual property scams that are intended to elicit quick cash from innocent owners. For instance, a recent story from Nebraska details how a small coffee shop was targeted by these scammers. In Nebraska, the scammers sent an official-looking letter to the local coffee shop advising the owners of Muglife Coffee to register their trademark and brand on “international trademark registries” to potentially avoid losing rights to their mark. The letter asked the coffee shop owner to pay over $2,500 each time to “register” the trademark.

As most experienced intellectual property counsel know, private companies have long been running these types of scams. Even the United States Patent and Trademark Office has published official warnings on their government websites, warning trademark owners against “registering” with these third-party registries.

Fortunately, in this case, the owners of Muglife wisely consulted an experienced trademark attorney who immediately advised the owners to ignore the letter. Despite this, however, many brand owners still fall into this trap every year. These fly-by-night companies often prey on well-intentioned owners who are eager to protect their growing brand. In an attempt to curb this abuse, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office maintains a list of well-known scammers on their website to put owners on notice of these unsavory acts.

This practice, however, is not limited only to the United States. Foreign versions of the scam are rampant, and the World Intellectual Property Organization has also consistently issued warnings, memorandums, and directives about these fraudulent practices. To date, at least fifteen foreign intellectual property offices have issued official warnings about these schemes.

More recently, domain name scams have also become common. These scams generally involve asking the domain owner to purchase additional services or domains via an unnecessary third party. In cooperating, brand owners often unwittingly may grant a portion of their intellectual property rights to these third parties.

Unfortunately, once a brand owner falls victim to the schemes, there is not much room for recourse. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states that there is no official or legal way to pursue damages or refunds from these unscrupulous third parties because the conduct is not technically illegal as required by the law. As such, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office highly recommends hiring experienced intellectual property attorneys to help brand owners navigate the complex legalities of registration, maintenance, and protection of intellectual property rights. A simple and quick consultation can provide owners with significant savings in the long run as well as peace of mind.

For more information on this topic, please visit our Trademark Protection service page, which is part of our Trademark Practice.

Klemchuk LLP is an Intellectual Property (IP), Technology, Internet, and Business law firm located in Dallas, TX.  The firm offers comprehensive legal services including litigation and enforcement of all forms of IP as well as registration and licensing of patents, trademarks, trade dress, and copyrights.  The firm also provides a wide range of technology, Internet, e-commerce, and business services including business planning, formation, and financing, mergers and acquisitions, business litigation, data privacy, and domain name dispute resolution.  Additional information about the trademark firm and its trademark attorneys may be found at www.klemchuk.com.

Klemchuk LLP hosts Culture Counts, a blog devoted to the discussion of law firm culture and corporate core values with frequent topics about positive work environment, conscious capitalism, entrepreneurial management, positive workplace culture, workplace productivity, and corporate core values.

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