New IPR scam - and some old ones
Date: 12/02/2009
Scams aimed at unwary inventors never go away. A newcomer we’re aware of is a Brussels-based outfit calling itself the 'European Institute for Economy and Commerce'.
Apparently it doesn’t exist – for information see, for example,
http://www.competex.co.uk/news_views_events/news/EIECandDataProtection.pdf.
You’re likely to be targeted by EIEC – and maybe other scammers - if you apply for any form of IP where your contact details are legitimately published as part of the application process. For example, you apply for a trade mark and in due course your details are published in the official Trademark Bulletin. You then receive an invoice for ‘registration fees’ totalling hundreds of pounds (on the one we’ve seen, the sum demanded was £479.75). The invoice looks authentic, and its very cunning wording may keep it technically legal, but for all practical purposes it’s completely bogus.
Other related scams are aimed at patent applicants. As soon as your application is published, fraudsters have the information they need to find you. The scam here is either the same EIEC-type invoice for 'registration' or 'filing’ fees; or, more insidiously, someone may contact you expressing a very keen interest in licensing your patent. You’ll think: ‘Great! Success at last!’ – but all they want is to get a hook into you, so you can be milked for a series of increasingly large 'introduction' or 'arrangement' or 'marketing' fees.
Don’t fall for any of it, because most of the outfits are based overseas, and not even necessarily in the country they claim as their address. Therefore, if you pay them anything at all, your chances of ever getting it back are remote.
Your only real defence is to be hyper-alert to deception. If any organisation asks you for money, no matter how official or ‘genuine’ they appear, check them out. Run their name through a search engine, or talk to someone at your local trading standards department, or at UKIPO. The more friendly and persuasive they are on the phone, the bigger the danger you’re in.
Finally, report what they’re doing if you think they’re up to no good – the UK and US governments have a decent track record of closing cowboys down, but they need to know about them first.
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