Warning to trademark owners

I know I discourage posts unrelated to gambling on this site. However, there are a lot of members who are game inventors, which would likely entail trademarking the name of their games. That said, I just got a letter in the mail from the Czech Republic that looked like an official invoice for my international trademark, which I don't think I even have. Here is a scan of the invoice. I erased the address.


Click on image for a larger version.

The point of this is to be skeptical of things that look like invoices once you start to own patents or trademarks. I assure you that you'll get lots as I have. For business owners, there are all kind of taxing authorities getting into your pocket. It can be hard telling the legitimate ones from the scams sometimes. However, I think anything coming from outside the US (assuming you're in the US) should set off a huge red flag.

That takes some nerve. Wow.

Quote: beachbumbabs

That takes some nerve. Wow.

Yup. Asking for $2,327 seems rather egregious. I could see a lot of people just paying it if it were only $200, but when you get this high it no longer is just a nuisance invoice and demands some investigation.

Their thinking is probably there are some newbies who don't know any better and will pay it anyway. If they have a success rate of just 1%, that is $23.27 per letter, which is likely a lot more than their expenses.

Quote: Wizard

I know I discourage posts unrelated to gambling on this site. However, there are a lot of members who are game inventors, which would likely entail trademarking the name of their games. That said, I just got a letter in the mail from the Czech Republic that looked like an official invoice for my international trademark, which I don't think I even have. Here is a scan of the invoice. I erased the address.


Click on image for a larger version.

The point of this is to be skeptical of things that look like invoices once you start to own patents or trademarks. I assure you that you'll get lots as I have. For business owners, there are all kind of taxing authorities getting into your pocket. It can be hard telling the legitimate ones from the scams sometimes. However, I think anything coming from outside the US (assuming you're in the US) should set off a huge red flag.

They only charged you "$0,00" for your "Aditional fee"! A bargain.

Quote: sodawater

They only charged you "$0,00" for your "Aditional fee"! A bargain.

How nice of them! I didn't even notice that. Maybe I would have paid it out if gratitude of I did.

Quote: beachbumbabs

That takes some nerve. Wow.

You might want to read uspto.gov warning.

Here is an exact copy of your scam letter here available from here

We get them at small development companies all the time. The first one was cause for pause, then the Nigerian Prince began to sound (in this case, Ivanka Slovenska with an important message for maintaining our trademark in the Czech Republic.....they may scour existing filings and sources, and duplicate the names/verbiage of old company TM's/taglines/logos/etc. into the documented bill or request sent...) A harried manager or AP account exec may think "Hey, we gotta protect our IP worldwide, but of course...."
It looks official, but it is a complete scam.

Yeah, I've seen stuff like that for renewing my web domains.

Some of the consumer targeted scams are easy to identify: If it's bulk rate mail, it's junk mail.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Yeah, I've seen stuff like that for renewing my web domains.

Some of the consumer targeted scams are easy to identify: If it's bulk rate mail, it's junk mail.

Yep, I have gotten very similar letters for some domain names that I own. The last one was under the guise of SEO marketing. It looked like an invoice for services already rendered, but upon closer inspection was actually an ad for their (dumb) search engine submission product. It was only $50, so probably some people just pay it without thinking.

Scams like this abound.

In the sixties newly immigrated Russians bought up lists of restaurants in NYC and sent letters plus a dry cleaners invoice for cleaning their suit when the waiter bumped them. One dumb jerk sent it out to list of lunchstands that don't even have waiters.

For years large corporations often routinely paid invoices for 14.88 or something since it was below an internal minimum or something.

Some people are so confused about copyright they pay a Fair Use Fee each year.

But it can be important at times. I had a series of articles linking a variety of American and European films and literature to the type of person who would murder JonBenet Ramsey. Some were just some brief humorous musings, some were rather more thoroughly thought out works, but all were lost when the website administrator let the registration lapse and the name was bought up by a domain name squatter who replaced the site with pornography. My prime suspect died early this year and I really wanted those files!

That's not safe.

Here is a scam to my Trademark from Hungary
Please review images
https://photos.app.goo.gl/22gm3LnsPahVdKvh1

I'm just going through the trademark process for a new game and was warned of bogus invoices and hey presto one (so far) has turned up from the " World Organization for Trademarks" (wotra-register (with a dot com) can't put link in full). They are requesting £986.00 to be registered in their "private" database. The bank transfer details are for a bank in Budapest.

Keep your eyes open and read anything you get very carefully.