Without scrutinizing the official-looking legal document carefully, the business owner may send it back with a check usually for a nominal sum such as $400, to cover the cost of his trademark renewal.
Only later does he discover that the form was not official correspondence at all, but rather a mass mail solicitation designed to confuse and deceive him into sending a check to a private company.
One New York intellectual property law firm has taken the initiative to target one such alleged mass mail trademark renewal "scammer."
White Plains, New York-based Intellectual Property law firm Leason Ellis LLP recently filed a federal lawsuit on its own behalf against Patent & Trademark Agency LLC and Armens Organesjans, an individual who is reportedly the mastermind behind the alleged mass mail "scam."
Leason Ellis alleges that the Defendants, who claim to operate the "nation's premier trademark registration and renewal service," are actually nothing more than a private company that targets unwary businesses and individuals by sending mass mailings that are designed to mimic U.S. government trademark renewal forms.
To support its allegations, Leason Ellis notes that the official United States Patent and Trademark Office recently included an example of such a mass solicitation sent by the Defendants as an example of one scam to avoid.
Leason Ellis claims to have been damaged by virtue of having its clients duped by the allegedly false advertising sent by the Defendants. The Complaint alleged a variety of torts, including tortious interference with business relationships.
