Last week, the House Judiciary Subcommittee held a hearing on “Oversight of the USPTO.” That is a big deal, it doesn’t happen too frequently. The hearing covered patents. AI. Policy. PTAB. The usual big-picture topics. They even touched on trademarks, primarily the recent Board of Peace trademark filings.
But they completely skipped the most widespread, most practical intellectual property issue facing small businesses today: Scammers.
Small businesses file a lot more trademark applications than patent applications. And the moment a trademark application is submitted, the owner’s information becomes public. And almost immediately, the scams start.
- Official-looking emails
- Letters that look like government notices
- Phone calls creating urgency
- “Final notice” warnings about deadlines
All asking for money. All fake.
Meanwhile… Congress Didn’t Ask a Single Question About It
That’s the frustrating part. This was an oversight hearing. A chance to ask the USPTO:
- What are you doing about trademark scams?
- Why are applicants still getting flooded with misleading notices?
- What protections exist for small businesses?
- How are you educating people before they get scammed?
Instead? Nothing.
This Is the #1 Intellectual Property Issue for Small Businesses
Not patent appeal procedures, not backlogs, not the Board of Peace filings, not policy reform. Those matter – but they’re not what the vast majority of businesses are dealing with day-to-day.
What small businesses are dealing with is this: They try to protect their brand… and immediately become targets.
I hope Congress will hold another hearing soon. And I hope they will bring this issue to the forefront, and push for more action and more education about the impact of trademark scammers.
Watch the entire hearing here:
