Legal action filed against ‘Patent and Trade Mark Office’
The Intellectual Property Office says “Two of the most blatant offenders – ‘Patent and Trademark Office’ and ‘Patent and Trade Mark Organisation’ – and the persons behind these organisations, Mr Aleksandrs Radcuks and Mr Igors Villers, have admitted and settled our claims and agreed to be bound by an Order of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court prohibiting them from further acts of passing off.
These organisations have been issuing official looking ‘renewal’ notices to holders of UK registered patents and trademarks offering to renew the rights for fees greatly in excess of the official renewal fees. We know that some of our customers have been misled into making excessive payments to these organisations because they thought they were paying the IPO for renewing intellectual property rights we therefore felt it was necessary to take appropriate action given the evidence that our customers are being misled or confused and that damage is being caused to the office’s good name”
Further proceedings are pending against another organisation that is engaged in similar practices, so watch this space.
