Disappointed inventor
November 3, 2004 on 4:00 pm | In Independent Inventors |I received a phone call from one of my independent inventors earlier this morning regarding a letter they had received from U.S. Patent Certificate, Inc. a Division of Professional Awards of America, Inc. which reads (in part):
Dear Inventor:
The United States Patent Office has approved your application and granted your patent…[w]e are, therefore, pleased to offer you an exceptional line of elegant patent recognition produts to preserve this special occasion….
The problem is that the inventor doesn’t have a patent. The inventor does has a published patent application. So, either this company doesn’t understand the difference between a patent and a published patent application OR the letter was sent to the inventor by mistake. My client had called to confirm that she had a patent…only to be disappointed when I told her that the letter was untrue. You could definitely hear the disappointment in her voice.
My quick research seems to indicate that U.S. Patent Certificate, Inc. is viewed as being reputable by other IP websites, and so I tend to think it was a mistake.
Companies the Patent Office has warned independent inventors and trademark owners about before include:
An entity or person issuing a document, for example, a “certificate,” allegedly by the Chief Financial Officer of the United States Patent and Trademark Office for payment of USPTO fees and lawyer fees is NOT affiliated with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The United States Patent and Trademark Office does NOT issue such “certificates.” If you have any questions, please call the Office of Independent Inventor Programs at (703) 306-5568. (06Nov2001)
An entity doing business as the ‘United States Trademark Protection Agency’ is NOT affiliated with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. (14Jul2001)
UPDATE: The thing I forgot to mention was: remember that the USPTO will communicate with your attorney, NOT you. Thus, if you receive mail about your patent, no matter how formal or official it looks, the chances are that it is a solicitation from a business and not official mail from the USPTO. Fax a copy to your patent attorney and ask him/her if it is legit. Caveat emptor!
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