The process of registering a trademark is lengthy and has always been a headache for registrants. The longer the period for registering a trademark, the more opportunities it gives fraudsters to commit crimes. From the submission of a trademark application to the issuance of the acceptance notice, from the trademark announcement to the official issuance of the trademark certificate, scammers are pervasive in every step.

Recently, our company received two trademark acceptance notices mailed from customers, asking for help in identifying the authenticity. Let’s take a look at how a fake acceptance notice can appear to be real.

Identification method one: Trademark Office address and postal code identification method

Why are there two addresses?

Because the Trademark Office once moved, on November 5, 2012, the Trademark Office moved from No. 8 Sanlihe East Road, Xicheng District, Beijing to No. 1 Chama South Street, Xicheng District, Beijing.

No. 8, Sanlihe East Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, was indeed the office address of the Trademark Office. But unfortunately, after the Trademark Office moved to a new address in November 2012, the address of all text documents of the Trademark Office was changed to the new No. 1 Chama South Street, Xicheng District, Beijing.

Identification method two: Registration application number identification method

Trademark application numbers are sorted according to Arabic numerals. Currently, the number of trademarks accepted in my country is about 10 million. It is common for trademark registration certificate numbers in the past six months to be 8-digit Arabic numerals starting with 11 or 12.

Based on the national trademark acceptance volume and growth rate, it is estimated that an 8-digit Arabic numeral starting with 2 will appear in the trademark certificate as the trademark application number. This situation will probably occur 3-5 years later.

Identification method three: date identification method

Our country’s government documents follow the writing method of the Republic of China. The month is expressed with only a single word number, and most of them are in capital letters. The month zero in capital letters is always ignored. The Trademark Office’s lower case letters for the month also follow the rules for capital letters in government documents, ignoring the number zero. (This evidence can also be proven in documents on the official website of the Trademark Office.)

Identification method four: Seal identification method

Countries have clear regulations on seal specifications. The specifications of official seals such as party charters, trade union seals, state-owned enterprises, and state-owned joint-stock enterprises are: diameter 4.2cm, round edge width 0.1cm. size.

Identification method five: Agency identification method

For any trademark registered through an agency, the trademark acceptance notice will indicate the name of the agency at the bottom. The original intention of the Trademark Office is that users can enter the corresponding agency name on the National Trademark Office website to verify the authenticity of the agency to avoid being deceived.

If the trademark is registered through an agency and there is no agency name on the acceptance notice, it must be a counterfeit company and documents.