Beware trademark registration scam

BUSINESS people unfamiliar with French should be wary of demands for money to register trademarks and products.

Auto-entrepreneurs are particularly susceptible, but many businesses find themselves bombarded with letters and payment demands by both government and private companies.

Connexion recently received letters from a company called Trademark Publisher, which the fineprint shows to be based in Vienne - which turns out to be Vienna the capital of Austria, not the French department or one of several French communes of that name.

The organisation demanded €795 each to register two trademarks belonging to the paper on their site for two years - in a document which looks very similar to the official payment demands of French social security agencies.

The small print explains that registration with them will "enable us to ensure a worldwide exposure of the trademark via our website". Trademark Publisher claims in the fine print that the companies that appear in its online database have all paid to be there.

Marketing manager Florence Tellerin of company Altona, which is based in the Seine-et-Marne and appears on the online database said that while they were aware of letters from Trademark Publisher, they had not been asked to pay for this.

The official French body for trademarks the Institut National de la Proprieté Industriele (INPI) has its own searchable database of trademarks at http://tinyurl.com/trademarkdatabase

The INPI says that Trademark Publisher is not the only firm to be sending out such letters. A spokesman said that holders of trademarks, patents or designs have been receiving letters from bodies offering to publish or register them at European or international level, in return for substantial sums.

"These letters just reproduce details from the official bulletin of industrial property (BOPI)," he said. "The services they offer have no official character, are not obligatory and have no legal effect," he added.

Publication in the BOPI is the only requirement for a trademark to be protected in France, he said, and the cost of doing this is included when you register it.

To extend protection internationally the INPI passes on requests to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, while the corresponding body for the European Union is the OHIM.

The Fédération des Auto-Entrepreneurs, an information and support website for the self-employed, says auto-entrepreneurs are often targeted by letters asking for payment for listing in directories of dubious usefulness.

One they warn about asks for payment for listing in the Registre des Sociétés Nouvellement Constituées (Register of New Businesses), which has no official status.

The federation advises that before paying for anything you weigh up how useful and relevant being listed is likely to be compared to the price being asked. In most cases you would be better-advised to list your details on sites which are free than to pay for such services, they suggest.

Other firms which INPI warn against include Globus Edition S.L, Global Edition KFT, Société pour Publication et Information Sarl SPI, Société pour Publications Economiques, Edition the Marks KFT, Institut Economique pour le Commerce, l’Artisanat, l’Industrie; Centrale Economique pour l’Industrie et le Commerce, TM-Collection, GAIA Almanach Ltd and ZDR-Datenregister GmbH.