ASA orders Swiss company to stop ‘misleading’ UK IP owners

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ordered a Swiss company to stop sending marketing material that implied it was officially tied to the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO).

Today, January 27, the ASA ruled against the Patent and Trademark Institute after it failed to respond to a complaint filed by the IPO.

According to the ASA’s decision, letters sent by the institute to intellectual property owners gave the impression that they were from an organisation "likely to have official links, or acting on behalf of the recognised UK trademark registration body”.

The letters contained a customer ID number, trademark number and class and notice informing recipients that their patent and trademark records would be deleted from the organisation's database if no payment was made.

The alleged registration fee was £887 ($1,270) with a further payment of £9 required for processing the transaction. The letters added that recipients have to renew their registration annually and pay an accompanying fee. The letters were sent on November 30.

The IPO complained that the institute implied it was an international body responsible for granting IP rights. Also, the letters failed to articulate that non-payment would not result in an invalidation of IP rights, the ASA said.

In its decision, the ASA added: “Because the overall impression created by the mailing implied that it was from an official trademark renewal body, that non-payment would result in the loss of a patent or trademark registration and it implied the recipient had an ongoing business relationship with the Patent and Trademark Institute, we concluded the ad was misleading.”