[photo] Mark Jeftovic

easyDNS CEO, Career Contrarian & AntiGuru

TM-Collection – The latest “Trademark Directory” scam outfit

This one came in via postal mail from Hungary, a pretty straightforward looking “invoice” for our trademark in something called the “TM-Collection – International Register of Trademarks”.


I’m sure if one were to confront these companies they would tell you they are “offering a service” not trying to chump you with a fake looking invoice, but I contend that the latter is indeed the end-game behind all these. Why? Because when somebody is trying to sell you a service that you don’t already own, use, subscribe to, etc, the order form is invariably accompanied by a sales letter. No sales letter = no sales pitch. If it just shows up looking like an invoice, its a scam.


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5 Comments to TM-Collection – The latest “Trademark Directory” scam outfit

  1. October 31, 2009 at 4:01 pm | Permalink

    They almost got me on this one. I received this invoice just at the time that our trandmark is being published in the Canadian Trademarks Journal. I quickly looked at this invoice and thought it was from the firm that is processing the trademark. They have my exact logo in proper format. How were they able to obtain this?

  2. December 22, 2010 at 12:36 am | Permalink

    I received an invoice in the same invoice format, with the $1650 charge sent on 09 September 2010. This is such a SCAM!!! Unbelievable that they can get away with sending an invoice described as “Registration Costs” and then have all of the information that was put in the original trademark application to make it seem legit. I have no idea why by this point in time 37 of 210 people have voted that it is NOT a scam, when there is no chance in hell it isn’t. If they had included a description of the catalogue in the mailer along with any marketing materials, then I would say they were somewhat legit. But sending only an official looking invoice? SCAM

  3. Lisa's Gravatar Lisa
    January 4, 2011 at 5:09 am | Permalink

    Thanks for posting this. I got this same “invoice” in the mail today and was immediately suspicious – the paper is cheap copier paper and $1650??. I went online to see if others had gotten the same and now that I see they have it’s going straight to the shredder.

  4. Valerie's Gravatar Valerie
    May 24, 2011 at 4:21 pm | Permalink

    I just received a notice also — I am faxing a copy of this to the different departments at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. I have $25.00 cap on when my radar goes off. I decided that if anyone or any compnay is asking, suggesting or telling me that I owe any more than $25.00 –I just check it out. So far, I have not been ripped off.

  5. teresa's Gravatar teresa
    June 16, 2011 at 12:14 am | Permalink

    Yes, Just received the same invoice for 1650 today. Just at the time that my trademark was approved. I was suspicious so I did a simple Google search and several warnings of the scam appeared.

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