There is an ongoing scam email campaign targeting trademarks owners in Canada (and the United States) trying to scare and deceive these owners.
We first wrote about this in November 2024. Given an apparent resurgence of this scam, we are circulating an updated version of our November 2024 article.
In this scam email campaign, the sender is identified as an “intellectual property lawyer”. This alleged “intellectual property lawyer” warns the recipient to call or otherwise contact the sender immediately in order to avoid serious consequences such as possible severe legal costs and risks to the trademark owner’s trademark.
The College of Patent Agents & Trademark Agents (CPATA) which is the regulatory body overseeing Canadian registered patent and trademark agents originally issued a public notice article warning of this scam email campaign in January 2025. CPATA’s article (updated April 2026) gives a detailed description of this scam.
Other Common Scam Trademark Notices
This scam email campaign is one of several similar fraudulent campaigns targeting Canadian trademark owners.
Beware that companies or individuals search the public trademark databases in Canada and the United States and send out unsolicited and misleading emails or mail to trademarks owners. These emails and notices attempt to look “official” by using names that sound similar to the Canadian or US Trademark Offices. These notices may even look like an invoice requiring payment to maintain the identified trademark.
If you receive the latest scam email described above, or another unsolicited email or notice that you suspect may be fraudulent, do not respond or act on it but rather, contact your trademark agent or CPATA (cpata-cabamc.ca).
If Pallett Valo LLP is your company’s registered trademark agent, contact Ahmed Bulbulia, Intellectual Property Partner & Registered Trademark Agent, at abulbulia@pallettvalo.com.
This post was originally published in November 2024 and has been updated as of April 2026.