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Unsolicited IP Services
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IP Australia occasionally receives notification of
instances in which inventors, designers and
businesses have fallen victim to companies
offering fraudulent IP protection, promotional or advertising
services. While the majority of Australian
companies providing support in registration,
maintenance, promotion or advertising of IP are reputable,
it pays to be cautious when receiving correspondence or responding to invoices regarding your IP.
Patent and trade mark registers.
If you own a registered patent and/or trade mark,
you may find yourself the target of letters
regarding overseas registration of your
application. As a rule of thumb, letters from
unfamiliar organisations, especially letters
requesting payment for unsolicited services,
should be treated with caution. Several
owners of registered patent and trade marks have
recently reported receiving correspondence
offering services in relation to patent and
trade mark registration and maintenance. Such
communication has taken a number of forms.
Examples include:
- offers to register patent/trade marks in international registers,
- invoices for registration of patent/trade marks in registers, and
- offers of patent/trade mark monitoring services.
IP Australia advises that mail from unknown
sources on the subject of patent and trade mark
registration should be treated with caution. In
cases where the credibility of correspondence is questionable, it would be prudent to consult a
professional adviser, such as a patent or trade
mark attorney.
Companies reported to have disseminated
unsolicited communications to trade mark owners
include:
- TMP, Trade Mark Publishers, Austria but with a street address in Sydney
- Commercial Centre for Industry and Trade (based in Switzerland)
- Company for Economic Publications Ltd (based in Austria)
- Company for Publications and Information Anstalt (based in Liechtenstein)
- Edition The Marks KFT
- European Institute for Economy and Commerce - EIEC (based in Belgium)
- Globus Edition SL (based in Spain)
- INFOCOM (based in Switzerland)
- Institute of Commerce, Trade and Commerce (based in Switzerland)
- IT & TAG (based in Switzerland)
- TM Collection (based in Hungary)
- ZDR-Datenregister GmbH (based in Germany)
- I.B.F.T.P.R - International Bureau for Federated Trademark & Patent Register
- RIPT - Register of International Patents and Trademarks
- Gaia Almanach LTD
- International Patent and Trademark Register based in Nurnberg, Germany
- Federated Institute for Patent and Trademark Registry, based in Florida, USA
Please note the above list is not necessarily comprehensive, and it is possible
that correspondence will come from companies not listed here. For more information,
please contact IP Australia on 1300 65 1010.
The companies listed above are not associated with IP Australia and have no official or government
authority. The services they offer do not affect official trade mark registration or trade mark rights
in Australia or to the best of our knowledge, in any other country.
Before paying a fee for any IP related service, IP Australia recommends that you carefully consider
what, if any, protection, promotion or other value the service will provide.
Unnecessary services
You may also receive a letter from an overseas lawyer or attorney firm informing you that someone
has applied to register your trade mark in another country and offering their services if you decide
to oppose registration. This is a legitimate service but may only be relevant if you intend to use
your trade mark in that particular country. If you have no such intention you do not need to take any
action.
If you are in any doubt about what to do, it would be wise to seek the legal advice of an IP expert
in Australia before making a decision. Many lawyers and attorneys who specialise in trade marks advertise
their services in the Yellow Pages. Alternatively there are links to various IP professionals registered
in Australia here.
If you are concerned about the behaviour of any company you should contact the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Their complaints line is 1300 302 502.
Disclaimer:
This information is intended to help the reader gain a basic understanding of
some IP principles. It is not designed to provide legal, business or other relevant
professional advice. IP Australia recommends that you seek independent legal,
business or other relevant specialist advice.
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