Warning Issued Re. Non-Solicited Invoices
Recently, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office ("CIPO") issued a warning on the Trademarks mainpage to advise regarding the receipt of non-solicited invoices.
Typically, such "invoices" are correspondence disseminated to trademark applicants and/or registrants once their contact information has been published (i.e. on the CIPO online database or in the Trade-marks Journal) to request participation in or contribution to an upcoming online or print publication of trademarks. Nevertheless, such correspondence is often confusingly similar to billing invoices and loaded with small print. Consequently, many unwitting recipients may inadvertently submit payment for the service without necessarily appreciating the nature of the request or its potential utility for their business.
The most prudent course of action to take when an unsolicited piece of correspondence is received (particularly when it appears as an 'invoice'), is to contact your agent and provide a copy of the material for review. Alternatively, CIPO has advised that recipients may also contact the Client Service Centre at 1-866-997-1936 (or at 819-934-0554 for international calls) prior to responding to such correspondence.
