USPTO warns ‘bad actors’ are changing attorney records
The US Patent and Trademark Office ( USPTO) has warned that bad actors are using its e-filing system to make unauthorised changes to attorney information.
The notice, issued yesterday August 8, said the bad actors were targeting withdrawal and revocation of attorney forms through the Trademark Electronic Application System ( TEAS).
The unauthorised changes include replacing the primary correspondence email address with the bad actor’s email, or deleting the address altogether.
The USPTO said the bad actors are also fraudulently signing the attorney of record’s name, as well as resetting the correspondence address to the applicant’s address in the initial application.
To counteract this, the office said that when it receives a request to change the primary email correspondence, it will send an email to the prior primary email correspondence address to alert the attorney of changes.
It said attorneys should look from an email message from ‘TEAS@uspto.gov’ with the subject line "Alert USPTO Change of Email Address".
The office said it would be implementing a new login requirement later this year which should eradicate the problem.
In the meantime, the USPTO also urged attorneys to keep their contact information updated, noting that of those registrations being targeted, bad actors appear to be going after those that do not include a correspondence email address.
“You won’t receive a change of address alert if you don’t have a correspondence email address on record,” it added.
The office asked attorneys to monitor their cases for unauthorised changes, and report any found using these instructions.
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