Beware IP Scams! By: Malcolm Pipes There appears to be an uptick in the numbers of IP scams circulating around. A commonly encountered scam uses official-looking notices that claim to originate from governmental trademark and/or patent offices or legitimate vendors advising the recipient to pay fees in order to maintain their trademark and patent rights. However, in most cases, these notices are rather sophisticated scams or solicitations seeking payment for unnecessary services. Domain Names A frequent scam involves an email originating from a domain name registrar or IT consulting company based in China that purports to notify a trademark holder that another entity is seeking to register your trademark or business name as a domain name in China or some other locale in Asia (e.g., clientbrand.cn, clientbrand.hk, clientbrand.tw, etc.). Our firm was recently the target of such a scam, which typically starts with an email giving the mark owner a short time to apply for and secure the domain name for their own use. The email may even include a warning that someone else is applying to use your mark as a domain name. While perhaps not a scam per se, these notifications are essentially thinly veiled solicitations seeking your business to register your domain name. If you receive such a solicitation, you should consult us. thelegalnewsletter/?p=1530
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 18:55:46 +0000