Recognizing an IP promise that needs a closer look

An email arrives quoting your trademark serial number and asking for a fee by Friday. A website offers to register your song "internationally" for one payment. A firm promises your invention will make money and get a "global patent". Before you pay, check three things in this order: what exactly will be done, who is really asking, and what the contract says.

Ask what will actually happen

Ask the provider to describe the service in one sentence. Preparing an application, filing it with a named office, storing a private record, watching a database and giving advice are different services at different prices. Then ask which right, which work and which countries are involved, what the fee includes, and what you still have to do yourself.

Know what nobody can sell you:

• International copyright registration. In most countries copyright protection arises automatically, with no registration or other formality. WIPO runs no copyright registration system and no searchable copyright database, and it warns that registration with unofficial entities "does not confer copyright protection or international recognition".1 Most countries do run an optional national registration system, which can help settle ownership disputes and simplify selling or licensing the work; if you want that, register with the official office.1 A private storage or timestamp service gives you a dated record of your file, not a registration; see what a timestamp can and cannot prove.
• A global patent. There is no such thing. A U.S. patent covers only the United States and its territories, and you apply separately in each country where you want protection.2
• Guaranteed success. No one can guarantee that an invention will make money.2

Check an invention marketing firm before you sign

The Federal Trade Commission gives these steps.2

1. Ask for the firm's track record in writing. Federal law gives you the right to information for the past five years, including how many inventions the firm evaluated, how many clients made a net profit, and how many licensed their invention through the firm.
2. Look for complaints with your local consumer protection agency, your state attorney general, the attorney general where the firm is headquartered, and the USPTO's published list of complaints against invention promoters. Search ftc.gov for "invention" to find past cases.
3. Ask for the names of many previous clients and choose yourself whom to call. Read online reviews critically: some firms post fake reviews or threaten former clients who post bad ones.
4. Ask early for the total cost of research, marketing and licensing. If the salesperson will not say, walk away.

Walk away, too, if the firm wants several thousand dollars upfront (reputable firms earn their money from royalties when they license a client's invention), offers a glowing "research report" without saying who did the research, or guarantees results.2

Verify an urgent trademark message

Scammers cite real serial and registration numbers, push for immediate payment, sometimes for fees that are not yet due, and threaten that you will lose your trademark rights.3 A correct number proves only that your record is public. Check these points against what the USPTO says it does:3

• Official USPTO websites end in .gov, and email sent directly by the USPTO ends in @uspto.gov. Any variation of the name, such as "Trademark Renewal Service", is not the USPTO.
• USPTO staff will not ask for personal or payment information by phone, email or text, and the USPTO never requires payment by wire transfer, gift card, cash, check or money order to a third-party address.
• Mailed or emailed solicitations borrow words like "United States", "Trademark", "Office" or "Agency" and often state in the fine print that the sender is not a government agency. Read the fine print.
• The USPTO does not recommend companies or attorneys, and only the trademark owner or a U.S.-licensed attorney can file for you.

Then verify the message yourself:3

1. Do not use the link, phone number or payment page in the message. Type tsdr.uspto.gov yourself and look up your serial or registration number in TSDR. Official correspondence appears under the Documents tab; if it is not there, it is not from the USPTO.
2. Check any deadline in TSDR and the real amount on the USPTO's trademark fee schedule.
3. Still unsure? If no examining attorney has been assigned yet, call the Trademark Assistance Center at 1-800-786-9199. If you have a recent office action, call the number in its signature block and compare the sender's name with the examiner's name.
4. Never give anyone your USPTO.gov password. An attorney who represents you files from their own USPTO.gov account.
5. Forward suspicious messages to TMScams@uspto.gov with the original email attached.4

For an office outside the United States, look it up in WIPO's Directory of Intellectual Property Offices and contact it using the details listed there, never the ones in the message.5 Finding reliable IP information in your country shows where to start.

Read the agreement while you can still choose

Before you pay, find these in writing: what will be delivered, the total cost, any extra charges, how to cancel, and who handles the next steps such as office responses and renewals. Make sure the contract contains every term you agreed to, including anything the salesperson promised out loud.2 If the sales pitch and the written terms differ, the written terms are what you are buying; get them corrected before you sign. Do not send unpublished invention details, drafts or source files until you know who will receive them and why; see before you show an invention to the world.

If you have already paid

1. Keep the solicitations, emails, receipts and screenshots.4
2. Call your bank or card company and ask whether you can dispute the charge.4
3. Report it. For a trademark scam, email TMScams@uspto.gov, file a complaint with the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and contact your state consumer protection authority and attorney general.4 For an invention marketing firm, report it to the USPTO, which forwards your complaint to the firm and publishes its response, and to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.2
4. Check your trademark record in TSDR for anything filed or changed without your consent, and have a U.S.-licensed trademark attorney review the application or registration before you file anything to fix it.4

If an invention marketing firm lied to you or left out crucial information, you may be able to sue it under the federal American Inventors Protection Act.2