If you file for a trademark with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (“USPTO”), you will probably be the target of this common scam. Don’t fall for it.
Scammers routinely monitor all new filings at the USPTO and will send out official-looking invoices which purport to be a charge for a trademark registration. They are typically from foreign countries, although not exclusively so.
I’ve copied one below so you can see what they look like.
These are nothing but scams. There is no real company called Trademark & Patent Publications and they are not offering you anything. They are simply trying to take your money. Another common scam is a letter that says that you need to file the identical trademark in China and they will do it for you for only $2500. Also a scam.
Anything that has to with your trademark will only come from the USPTO. Hopefully, when you filed your trademark, you gave permission for the Trademark Office to contact you by email. If the email address does not have a uspto.gov address, it’s not real.
You can also check the status of your trademark application online at any time by clicking this link which allows you to search by the name of the mark, serial number or owners name.
Once you find your application and click on it, you can check the status by clicking on the blue “TSDR” box at the top left. By clicking on the “Documents” tab, you will see all the documents that are associated with your application, filed by you or by the trademark examining attorney.
Good luck and thanks for reading.
Note: The Application Number and Mark were changed to protect my client’s privacy.