[E-trademarks] what to do about a tranche of filings?

[Kevin Grierson]

I would think that the first stop would be the OED.  They have experience with fraudulent TM filers, and the state bar is likely to defer to them as to what constitutes a bad faith filing.  And if by “multitudes” you mean hundreds or thousands of filings since July I would be surprised if the OED wasn’t interested in looking into it further.

You can also report suspicious activity to TMScams at uspto.gov.




Kevin Grierson​​​​
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From: E-trademarks <e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of Carl Oppedahl via E-trademarks
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2024 8:34 PM
To: for trademark practitioners <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Carl Oppedahl <carl at oppedahl.com>
Subject: [E-trademarks] what to do about a tranche of filings?

EXTERNAL EMAIL
A listserv member asks to post anonymously ...

I’ve become aware of a single named U.S. lawyer on multitudes of recently filed U.S. trademark applications for Chinese nationals and companies with over 950 applications filed since July and counting.  While I have not looked closely at all of them, the ones I’ve reviewed claim use and include a specimen showing the mark on a single type of good though the identification of goods are typically far reaching and include normally unrelated goods.  In tracking down the attorney, I anticipated they might not be aware their identity was being used on these filings, but I was able to reach a real person claiming to be the named attorney by phone and email.  As you might anticipate from my wording, I’m not wholly convinced the person I’ve reached is actually the named attorney.  I should also mention that this person’s name does not appear on a single trademark filing at the USPTO prior to July though the person was admitted to practice back in 1998.  I can’t find anything about the nature of this lawyer’s practice or work history online.

Since the named attorney is signing these applications attesting to the questionable far-ranging use on such a large number of filings, I believe they may be committing fraud.  I’m thinking of reporting the activity to the attorney’s state bar, but I’d love to get opinions on what exactly my role ought to be here  and whether I also should be reporting anything to the USPTO.


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