Alert to clients: “Trademark Registry Hub” and “Patents Registry Hub” Scam

By David Stewart Ebony Sweetnam

10 February 2025

As from December 2024, but spiking in early February 2025, business owners in Australia began to receive scam emails on a massive scale, relating to pending, competing trade mark applications. These emails claim another party has initiated a filing for a trade mark used by the recipient, and threaten to proceed with that trade mark application unless the email recipient instructs the sender to act for them. The text reads,

“As previously mentioned, another party has initiated the trademark filing for this name. However, after conducting thorough research, we discovered that they are a recent start-up with only a few months of use. In contrast, your business has a proven, longstanding history associated with the name. In line with our company policy, we are giving you first priority to file the trademark due to your legitimate and established use. However, time is of the essence and we require a response within the next 24 hours if you wish to proceed with the filing”.

Setting aside the absence of professional ethics in writing such an email, the singular word ‘trademark” is the giveaway that the email is not from an Australian IP practitioner. “Trademark” is the American spelling: Australian practitioners who practice in trade mark law use the English spelling of “trade mark”(as seen in the title of the Australian Trade Marks Act 1995).

The scammers impersonate various actual registered IP attorneys, but with incorrect contact details so as to divert responses and progress the scam.

The emails are issued by a business calling itself “Trademark Registry Hub” or “Patents Registry Hub”. Neither of these businesses appear on ASIC’s business name or company registries.

Here is the press release from the Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia:

We assume the scammers have deployed a site scraping tool which matches up ASIC or other online records of business names with the contact details of the business owner (the full name and email address) apparently extracted from the business’ website, or LinkedIn. The scam seems to target SMEs – we have not heard of any professional services firms receiving the email.

Please be extremely cautious when receiving unsolicited emails relating to trade marks, and looking not just to the name of the person sending the email but also the email address. If you have any questions about correspondence you have received regarding trade marks, please immediately contact us.

 

Disclaimer: The information published in this article is of a general nature and should not be construed as legal advice. Whilst we aim to provide timely, relevant and accurate information, the law may change and circumstances may differ. You should not therefore act in reliance on it without first obtaining specific legal advice.