WARNING
Once again we have heard about companies offering its services to applicants who have applied for a trade mark.
Among them is also a company called European Institute for Economy & Commerce(EIEC), based in Brussels and IOIP out of Switzerland. They have no connection with the OFFICIAL Registries!
This is to remind you that if you receive advice or an invoice for your application from anyone other than your trade mark agent, you should contact your agent, or if you receive an unwanted direct mail shot about your trade mark, please tell us.
Companies are offering services of dubious value or making what appear to be misleading requests for fees. They are mailing applicants whose patent or trade mark applications have been published in the bulletins of the European Patent Office (EPO), Benelux Merkenregister (BmB), World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) or the Community Trade Mark Office (OHIM).
They usually invite payment of a fee to put the patent or trade mark application on some register. These registers have no connection with the us or the official Offices, and have no legal significance. Whatever registration services might be offered in such invitations, they bear no connection to official Registers or to any of its official publications.
The invitations often identify a particular application by its (inter-)national publication number (eg: WO 02 xxxxxx), publication date, title of the mark, international application number, priority information and IPC symbols; examples of such invitations can be viewed below.
Among the companies are also: Central Data-Register of International Patents, Register of International Patent Bulletin/Registre des données bulletin europeén des brevetes, Institut of Commerce for Industry, Trade, Commerce/Wirtschaftsinstitut für Industrie, Handel, Handwerk AG or IOIP. The invitations typically refer to a payment, which is to be made in euro or US
dollars, by cheque and/or money transfer to an address in Germany or Switzerland.
In case of doubt in relation to such an invitation, please us: +31 76 514 8403 or facsimile +31 76 514 5616.
