Over the past several months a disturbing practice has been occurring at the USPTO. Trademark pirates are fraudulently changing the email address of the correspondence section within a trademark registration. Once changed, the trademark pirate contacts Amazon Brand Registry and requests the trademark be registered to the fraudulent email address/pirate. Amazon will email a secret code number to the fraudulent email address – providing the pirate with full access – causing the true trademark owner to lose control over their trademark on Amazon marketplace. These bad actors usually initiate these fraudulent correspondence changes on Fridays hoping the trademark owner will not recognize the fraud over the weekend. The true/original correspondent would be notified of this change by the USPTO but by that time the bad actor has already received the secret code number from Amazon and the damage has been done.
If you discover your trademark registration was a victim of this fraudulent practice, please contact us. There are ways to remedy this but you must act quickly to minimize the damage to your brand and business.
