Many owners of trademark applications and registrations receive misleading trademark notices on a regular basis. Because national trademark offices have made their computerized databases publicly available online, unscrupulous parties have the information they need to target owners in the hopes of convincing them to pay for bogus services.

Panitch Schwarze attorney Steven D. Lustig authored an article in The Legal Intelligencer outlining common trademark scams and identifying red flags that indicate these notices are fraudulent. While scam notices often bear official-sounding titles like “Trademark and Patent Office” and “World Trademark Register” and contain a real trademark, application, or registration number, knowing the basics of the law will help owners sort out solicitations that have nothing to do with maintaining a government-issued registration.

Lustig cautions trademark owners to read the fine print for any offers to register their trademark in a private database, which is completely unnecessary. He also recommends consulting trained attorneys and government intellectual property offices to determine the authenticity of any solicitation.

Read the full article here: “Is This a Scam? Yes, It’s a Scam: The Growing Prevalence of Misleading Trademark Notices” (Subscription is required.)