[E-trademarks] scammers impersonating the PTO

[Mark Kaufman]

Excellent, Carl.  I’ve now included in my template for client emails what
you’ve been using (minus the reference to “sitting at home in their
pajamas”, which seems like an inimitable Carl Oppedahl touch).



Thank you,
Mark





*From:* E-trademarks <e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> *On Behalf
Of *Carl Oppedahl via E-trademarks
*Sent:* Tuesday, September 9, 2025 11:15 AM
*To:* For trademark practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal
advice. <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>
*Cc:* Carl Oppedahl <carl at oppedahl.com>
*Subject:* Re: [E-trademarks] scammers impersonating the PTO



Thank you for posting.

What's sad of course is that just about everybody who happens upon this web
page will be a person who just got scammed and is now clicking around on
the Internet to try to figure out who will help them get their money back.
And the web page will be no help whatsoever toward their wish.

The vanishingly rare sequence of events is:

   - would-be scam victim sees this web page,
   - would-be scam victim keeps the warning in mind thereafter,
   - scammer contacts would-be scam victim,  and
   - would-be scam victim avoids getting scammed.

I bet that this four-step sequence absolutely never actually happens in
real life.

Here is what I wrote yesterday to a client:

You can see the two TSDR links [that I provided for the two newly filed
trademark applications].  I invite you to make a browser bookmark for each
of those links.  A first reason that I am telling you about the TSDR links
is that this will permit you to check the status of each trademark
application at any hour of the day or night.

But a second and more important reason that I am telling you about the TSDR
links is that anybody sitting at home in their pajamas can click around and
find these TSDR links.  This means that scammers will try to scam you, with
communications that look a little bit like real USPTO communications.  They
will look up your phone number on the web and call you up and try to scam
you.  Please do not fall for the scams.

Again thank you for posting.

On 9/9/2025 8:59 AM, Michael Tobias via E-trademarks wrote:

This consumer alert about scammers impersonating PTO employees was issued
by the Federal Trade Commission this morning.



https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2025/09/scammers-are-impersonating-united-states-patent-and-trademark-office?utm_source=govdelivery
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