[E-trademarks] Attorney Identity Theft

Sat Oct 26 14:52:07 UTC 2024

In a recent OED case of mine, OED suggested that attorneys have a responsibility to search their own name every six hours because there are actors that will file an application using the name and credentials of another, then immediately file a withdrawal.

Needless to say, I don’t believe that is the standard of care required.

Emil J. Ali
PARTNER
P: 310.596.1234  |  C: 202.556.3645  |  F: 310.649.7890
emil at mccabeali.com
[McCabe & Ali, LLP]
13337 South Street, Suite 555, Cerritos, CA 90703
O: 877.633.4097  | mccabeali.com

From: E-trademarks <e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> on behalf of Jeremy Green Eche via E-trademarks <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>
Date: Friday, October 25, 2024 at 6:40 PM
To: For trademark practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Jeremy Green Eche <jeremy at jpglegal.com>
Subject: Re: [E-trademarks] Attorney Identity Theft
Dockettrak tracks your trademarks by correspondent email address, so that wouldn't tell you if somebody was filing trademarks in your name using a different email address.

I don't blame non-TM attorneys for not checking the database regularly. There are many different settings in which people might pretend to be you and you can't monitor all of them.

—

Jeremy

Jeremy Peter Green Eche
Founder and Managing Attorney, JPG Legal

Office: (917) 268-7054 | Direct: (917) 310-2207

www.jpglegal.com<http://www.jpglegal.com>
157 13th Street, Suite 111
Brooklyn, NY 11215

On Fri, Oct 25, 2024 at 6:08 PM Lindsey Corbin via E-trademarks <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>> wrote:
We use DocketTrak and it searches based on the attorney.  You receive an email if a new record is added, so you can easily monitor for fraudulent applications.  Having said that, I agree with Carl - non TM attorneys/paralegals would have no clue how to search their credentials.

On Fri, Oct 25, 2024 at 3:01 PM Carl Oppedahl via E-trademarks <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>> wrote:

Over the past couple of years I looked at several clusters of trademark filings where it turned out some lawyer's name had been appropriated.  In each case that I looked at, the victim was a lawyer who had never touched a trademark file ever before in his or her life.

Those lawyers are not going to have a clue that it is somehow important to make a stop at the USPTO web site once a month to do a search for their own name in the trademark search system.
On 10/25/2024 3:43 PM, Annette Heller via E-trademarks wrote:
To monitor your applications on a regular basis by doing a search on your name and see what comes up.  I do a search on a monthly basis and have a follow up to remind me.

Annette

Annette P. Heller
Trademark/Copyright Attorney
TM Law & Associates
400 Chesterfield Center Ste 400
Chesterfield [St Louis] MO 63017

www.TrademarkAtty.com<http://www.trademarkatty.com/>

314-469-2610 Fax 314-469-4850
In a message dated 10/25/2024 11:55:22 AM Central Daylight Time, e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com> writes:

This is absolutely terrible. What would be a good way to prevent such identity theft?

Maria

--------------------------

Maria Eliseeva

Patentbar International

617-332-5800

maria at patentbar.com<mailto:maria at patentbar.com>

www.patentbar.com<http://www.patentbar.com/>

From: E-trademarks <e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com><mailto:e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of Diane Gardner via E-trademarks
Sent: Friday, October 25, 2024 12:23 PM
To: e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Diane Gardner <diane at mmip.com><mailto:diane at mmip.com>
Subject: [E-trademarks] Attorney Identity Theft

Today the ABA Journal Weekly Newsletter ran a story about Ana Belén Vinueza, a corporate attorney for Illumina (California) whose identity and credentials were stolen and used to file more than 2000 trademark applications.

According to the article, female attorneys licensed in California currently run the highest risk of this type of identity misappropriation. The USPTO is aware of at least 30 such cases of similar identity theft for the purpose of filing new trademark applications.

Kind regards,

Diane L. Gardner

Reg. No. 36,518

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