No, not that c-word.

The protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights involves a plethora of c-words:  copying, counterfeit, copyright, cease-and-desist, CIPO (the Canadian IP Office).   But the one I am referring to today is China.

As the world becomes more interconnected and the global economic impact of China has significantly increased, intellectual property

–Dan Kelly, Attorney

A few times each year, clients will call or write and inquire about some official-looking correspondence they’ve received about a trademark registration or application.  That happened this week, and here’s the top portion of the official-looking correspondence (redacted):

You can see the full page here.  If you read the fine print,

–Dan Kelly, Attorney

On a regular basis, we receive inquiries from clients about IP-related solicitations that they receive from third parties relating to things like renewing trademark registrations and domain names.  Typical solicitations are one-pagers with a patina of legitimacy, referencing a particular IP asset, the owner, then usually ending with the punch line of requesting a fee or payment for “registration” or some other official-sounding service.  (Example here.)

The Domain Name Strategy Blog (which you can now access at both domainnamestrategy.com and domainstrategy.com) wrote recently about a solicitation that they received from a company calling itself WIPD, an acronym for “World Intellectual Property Database.”  Some of you may know that there is a rather large organization in Europe called WIPO, or “World Intellectual Property Organization,” which is a U.N. organization that facilitates (or attempts to facilitate) an international IP system.  WIPO is a well-known and generally trusted organization in IP circles.

Below is a partial screen shot of the header on WIPO’s home page.  WIPO is the genuine article, the real deal.

Now here is a partial screen shot of the header from a WIPD solicitation:

The WIPD website is only a slightly less egregious ripoff of WIPO’s website.  Hit the jump to see those side-by-side.Continue Reading The World is Full of Scam Artists

We thought we had arrived when DuetsBlog made a listing of the Top 100 Branding Blogs, and it also was kind of nice when the DuetsBlog mark became federally registered, but now it appears we have reached yet another level of notoriety, appreciation, and respect altogether, as DuetsBlog is now receiving the most thoughtful of email solicitations all the

Putting aside, for now, the unsettled question of who currently owns the iPad trademark, and Dan’s perspective on Apple’s trademark clearance strategies, from last week, look at what our finely-tuned e-mail spam filter just snagged:

It is a similar story to my previous Free Dell XPS Laptop Spam Scam? blog post from last December. Here, however, the Apple, iPad, and the (possible)

Same drill as yesterday. Another email spam scam? More trademark fair use abuse?

Is it just me, or is the branded email spam coming out of the virtual woodwork, or what?

It appears that spam email — complete with fully branded solicitations — is becoming more and more aggressive, both from legal and technology perspectives.

We

What if you were told that if you agreed to "test" a Dell XPS laptop you could keep it, for free?

Would you expect the offer to be from Dell Computer?

After all, who else but the manufacturer would care to give a computer away for simply having you test it?

Would you at least expect the offer to be affiliated with, or authorized, or approved by Dell Computer?

What if the unsolicited email offer avoided your spam filter and looked something like this?

Would you click on the "CLICK HERE" icon as instructed, or would you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to see if you might be able to learn more before clicking?Continue Reading Free Dell XPS Laptop Spam Scam?