On January 25, 2022, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued an order for sanctions against Abtach Ltd., 360 Digital Marketing LLC, and Retrocube LLC. These entities operated a series of low-cost trademark filing and design websites. The USPTO discovered that these companies engaged in an egregious scheme to deceive and defraud both the USPTO and individual applicants in more than 5,500 trademark applications. The sanction order describes how these companies engaged in the unauthorized practice of law and intentionally provided false, fictitious or fraudulent information to the USPTO in violation of the USPTO’s rules of practice in trademark matters.

Unfortunately, the USPTO invalidated the applications filed by these companies. That is a harsh result for the unwary trademark owner.

If you used one of these companies to file your trademark application, you should check on the status of the application by visiting the USPTO website and conducting a search at https://www.uspto.gov. Once you have confirmed that your application was terminated, you will need to refile. Considering that your application now has a history of being involved in fraudulent activity, we recommend using a U.S. licensed attorney to refile your application. You will lose your application filing date priority, so we recommend acting quickly to protect your trademark.