USPTO Issues Advice to Fraud Victims with Suspended Trademark Applications

• USPTO issues page with advice for victims of Pakistan-based Abtach Ltd

• Company allegedly operated fraudulent low-cost trademark filing agencies

• Advice includes filing new applications and contacting bank for possible refunds

  
  

Just weeks after a major anti-fraud crackdown targeting Pakistan-based company Abtach Ltd, the USPTO has confirmed that thousands of trademark filings are now suspended and issued guidance for victims. The move is a reminder of the significant impact caused by the allegedly fraudulent entities operated by Abtach, the most notorious being Trademark Terminal.

Early last month the USPTO published a show-cause order to senior executives of Abtach Ltd and its subsidiaries 360 Digital Marketing and Retrocube. The companies were accused of violating the USPTO’s rules of practice related to dozens of low-cost trademark filing and design agencies, with a claim that the executives engaged in “an egregious scheme to deceive and defraud applicants for federal trademark registrations by improperly altering official USPTO correspondence, overcharging application filing fees, misappropriating the USPTO’s trademarks, and impersonating the USPTO”. The order listed thousands of trademark applications that were filed by entities allegedly operated by Abtach, and stated an intention to suspend them.

Now, the USPTO has published an update in which it confirms the thousands of applications listed in the order are now suspended. To that end, it urges applicants that have hired any of the below low-cost filing agencies to consider certain steps.

Abtach-operated entities listed by USPTO:

The below websites were allegedly created and operated by Abtach Ltd, of which the USPTO now says trademark applications linked to these entities are now suspended.

•      BrandMarkly

•      Designiconix.com

•      Designingterritory.com

•      designlogousa.com

•      Digitalech.com

•      Impressionify.com

•      Downtowndigital.org

•      Kreative5.com

•      Logoammo.com

•      Logodesignflix.com

•      Logoexxon.com

•      Logoevoke.com

•      Logofacility.com

•      Logoiconix.com

•      Logoknox.com

•      Logomacy.com

•      Logoorb.com

•      Logosparkle.com

•      Logostark.com

•      Logosynergy.com

•      Logotender.com

•      Logovizio.com

•      Manhattandigital.org

•      Nucleiglobal.com

•      Ohmydigital.com

•      Olivelogo.com

•      Oneclicklogo.com

•      Trademark 999

•      Trademark Axis

•      Trademark Eminent

•      Trademark Excel

•      Trademark Falcon

•      Trademark Fusion

•      Trademark Kingdom

•      Trademark Nation

•      Trademark Regal

•      Trademark Profs

•      Trademark Target

•      Trademark Terminal

•      US Trademark Pros

•      Uptownlogodesign.com

•      US Trademark Solutions

•      Websnart.com

The steps listed by the USPTO for victims of the alleged Abtach fraud do not appear to lead to the revival of the trademark filings. The USPTO suggests victims check the status of their application (using the TSDR system) to see if it is suspended. If so, applicants “will not be able to make changes to the application”. Going further, the USPTO states “if the order terminates your application, the application is invalid and cannot be revived” (the final sanctions order against Abtach has not yet been released). Therefore, should they want to obtain registered trademark protection, the USPTO states that victims will need to file a new application – further clarifying that such filings will receive a new serial number, filing date, and cannot be expedited.

The sheer scale of fraud campaigns targeting trademark users this year has been unprecedented, and so too has the response from the USPTO (indeed, just last week the agency terminated over 15,000 applications related to a China-based entity, Huanyee Intellectual Property Co Ltd, for repeated violations of US trademark rules of practice). While the hope is that these tough actions will work as a deterrent against other scam entities, it appears there’s little the victims outside of filing complaints and starting the trademark process anew.

The full list of trademark applications now suspended is available in the show-cause order, which can be read on the USPTO website.

Source: https://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/

Editor: IPRdaily-Rene