US Patent Office to Require Account Verification Following Fraud

The US Patent and Trademark Office will require all existing and new attorney support staff with an attorney-sponsored USPTO.gov account to verify their identity in order to access trademark filing systems in an effort to prevent abuse and scams that have “defrauded many trademark applicants.”

Verification will become mandatory on January 20, 2024, according to a notice set to publish Sept. 5 in the Federal Register. Existing unverified attorney-sponsored accounts will not be able to to access or submit trademark forms afterwards.

The patent office sanctioned several attorneys in October because they sponsored accounts for foreign individuals not licensed to ...