Trademark applicants and owners often receive documents asking for payments related to a trademark or design application or renewal. Cautiousness is highly recommended in this respect!
For example, a new misleading invoice is in circulation, which takes the form of a fake European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) renewal invoice. The misleading invoice has recently been reported to the EUIPO. This fake invoice uses the EUIPO's logo, name, acronym and address, and purports to be a EUTM renewal invoice issued by the EUIPO. It is mailed from Geneva, Switzerland, and includes a demand for a "registration and entry fee" to be transferred to a Polish bank account with a PL IBAN prefix.
Trademark applicants and owners should be aware of these practices.
The EUIPO has published a list of the firms or registers that users have complained of as having sent misleading invoices. The list is available here.
As can be seen from the list, the same applies to designs applications and renewals.
The list is not exhaustive.
Originally published 9 November 2020
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