Rita Faden (Member of the Board, Portuguese Industrial Property Institute) has written to us as follows:

"The Portuguese IP office has identified several companies - not only in Portugal but across Europe – which, although not referring directly to the PTO, have been sending misleading correspondence, in the format of a “invoice”, leading applicants to make some payments as if they were paying the official fees related with the registration process.

Aware that these cases have generated serious damage to applicants and to the image of the PTO, we were not indifferent to this situation and we promoted a set of initiatives to draw the attention of applicants to the absence of any connection between those letters and the process of official registration. For instance, we have been providing oral advice either in person or by telephone, and we have also provided the following warnings in our site (www.inpi.pt):

Warning: Undue request of payments relating to published trade mark requests

Some applicants for trade mark requests are receiving correspondence (in which the expression “Trade Mark Registration” is used a lot) which if not carefully read could mislead the recipient, causing him/her to believe it is an official INPI correspondence. These messages ARE NOT related to trade mark registration at INPI. Click here to read the warning in full. Read More...

IMPORTANT WARNING

Undue request of payments relating to published trade mark requests

Recently there have been several instances where applicants for national trade marks filed at INPI, and published in the “Boletim da Propriedade Industrial” (INPI’s official publication), are receiving correspondence from various companies, for example:Trademark Publisher, Mediaworks SA, Guia Telefax Anuário Profissional, SL, etc.The document in question, written in Portuguese, is in the format of an “invoice” soliciting the payment of amounts varying between €300 – €600. These companies, which offer a trade mark advertising service, highlight the expression “TRADE MARK REGISTRATION”, refer to the number of recently published requests for trademark registration and include reproduction of trade marks that show the personal details relating to applicants on file at INPI. If not carefully read, this could mislead the recipients causing them to believe that it is an official INPI correspondence related to their application at INPI.

Nevertheless, there is no relationship between this correspondence and trade mark registration at INPI or the “Boletim da Propriedade Industrial”, where the requests for registration filed, the known personal details of the applicant, the number, trade mark sign and the classes it will be given, are published daily.

INPI further advises you that the services offered by the companies in question are worthless in terms of national registration of trade marks.

We also warn you that other bogus correspondence could be disseminated by other advertising publishers.

If you have any doubts, don’t hesitate to contact our Helpdesk by calling our info line:

808 200 689 or e-mail us at atm@inpi.pt.

In addition, there is still a warning automatically generated when our online services request a payment for registration:

Warning against misleading requests for payment:

Some trademark applicants have been receiving mail (which the term "Registration Mark ") which an insufficiently attentive reading may induce the reader in error. Those letters may lead the reader believing that it is an official correspondence from INPI. These messages do NOT have any relation to the registration of trade marks in INPI. Click here  to read the full notice.

 Considering that this is a very delicate issue for IP users and hoping that this information may contribute to stop these misleading practices, we would appreciate if you could publish this information in the MARQUES Class 46 weblog".

We are very pleased to assist in publicising this initiative and will soon be issuing a further updated of our warning leaflet which will have this information in it.