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NEWS
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Warning! Unsolicited IP Services
Russell Davies December 2006
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Occasionally our clients receive unsolicited correspondence from companies offering IP protection or promotion services. As a rule of thumb, letters from unfamiliar organisations, especially letters requesting payment for unsolicited services, should be treated with caution.
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If you own a registered patent or trade mark you may find yourself the target of letters regarding overseas “registration” of your rights. Several owners of registered patent and trade marks have recently reported receiving correspondence offering bogus services in relation to patent and trade mark registration and maintenance. Such communication has taken a number of forms, such as:
· offers to register patent/trade marks in fictional international registers,
· invoices for registration of patents/trade marks
· in fictitious registers, and
· offers of patent/trade mark monitoring services.
For example, international patent applications filed under the Patent Co-operation Treaty are officially published in an international journal. A number of scam organisations use this published data to send out bogus invoices to applicants in the hope they will unwittingly pay.
Correspondence from unknown sources in relation to your IP rights should be treated with caution. Before acting on any unsolicited correspondence
we recommend you consult your attorney.
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 Download PDF version (448 KB)
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for further information contact russelldavies@ShelstonIP.com
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