 Hi, my name is Darren Marlar. I'm the podcast host of Weird Darkness and the reason I'm making this video is I want to warn other business owners about a scam that's going on. And apparently it's been going on for a couple of years now, but I didn't know about it because I never filed a trademark until just recently. I ended up receiving two letters in the mail today. Then for the podcast name, trademark Weird Darkness, and then for the logo for Weird Darkness. The letters came from WTMRLC, the World Trademark Register. And these look extremely official and at first they fooled me. And I almost sent them $980 per letter because I thought this was legit. Fortunately, I did my whole trademark thing through a law firm. So I emailed them saying I thought that was part of the fee that you guys were taking care of this for me. But after I sent that email, I started looking at the letter closely. And one of the things they put on this letter is to visit them online, which is WTMR.org. Well if you go to that URL address, all it does is take you to a Wikipedia page about a radio station with the call letters WTMR. It has nothing to do with the World Trademark Register. These people are a scam. They exist only to take your money. That's the only reason that they exist. They even say here, this is not a bill, but boy do they hide that within all of the stuff. Let me read this to you here. By the way, this is what it looks like, just so you can get an idea. It looks very official. There's the logo for Weird Darkness. The other letter has just the name Weird Darkness for the trademarks. Let me read this to you real quick. I won't go through the goods and services for what the mark is for, but here it is under that. The law considers a trademark to be a form of property. Your trademark is an important component of your successful business marketing strategy. Protecting your trademark for confusing similar names is your responsibility. Not protecting your trademark from confusing similar names, but for confusing similar names. So already they need a proofreader on this. The above mentioned data represents a sample of your trademark registration. By paying the amount indicated, you accept this and approve the listing of this information in the World Trademark Register, WTMR. Before I continue on, there actually is a listing of the World Trademark Register, but no lawyers ever use it for trademark infringement or checking to see if anything is being used so their clients can't use a trademark. It's a completely worthless catalog. Kind of like that who's who that comes out every year. You can pay to be in it, but it doesn't mean anything. This is even worse than that because they're promising you trademark protection which it doesn't really protect anything. Your above registration provides a notice to others that your described trademark is already taken. In other words, hey, here's a list of all the trademarks and there's your trademark. WTMR shows a sample of your trademark, an explanation of your goods and services, registration date and owner information as well. If you're interested in listing your trademark in our publication, please return this document with your payment. For more details, visit www.wtmr.org, which is what I did and it took me to that Wikipedia page. Thea 39 USC, Pound for the 2001, blah, blah, blah. Here's where it finally gets to this is not a bill. This is a solicitation. You are not obligated to pay the amount stated above unless you accept this offer. In case you have any changes or corrections, we kindly ask you to contact us at info at www.wtmr.org, which I'm not sure. I'm guessing that email address doesn't go anywhere seeing as the www.wtmr.org goes to a Wikipedia page. So I'm guessing if you email info at www.wtmr.org, you're not going to get a reply and it'll probably bounce back to you. So anyway, after under that, they give you the serial number for your for your particular trademark, which I believe is actually accurate. I'm sure they found found what the actual serial number was. Then they say, here's your charges and fees registration fee $980. And they want this is due later this month. So they're giving me less than a month to get this to them. If this was legit, that would be tough. But then I got another one for $980 one for the name one for the trademark. I would have to pay $980 twice. And only later on would I find out it was a complete scam. How many people, especially small business owners, how many of you can afford $980? Just for no benefit whatsoever. I don't know anybody that can do that. This should be mail fraud. This this should be this should be something that that they would be taken to jail for it should be a federal offense. It was it came to us via the U.S. Postal Service. And it's promising something that they can't deliver on. They're saying copyright or a trademark protection. They word it so precisely. So they're not technically promising that. But this is so misleading that somebody should do an investigation. Somebody should shut these people down. So if you are a small business owner or even a large business owner and you're filing for a trademark, do not fall for this. You'll get it in the mail shortly after you put in it for a trademark. You'll get one of these official looking letters. They'll ask for so far the last couple of years from what I understand. It's been $980 that they've been asking for. But check the fine print. Double check what you're what you're looking at. Do your research. The only reason I even discovered this was not legit was because I went to that website WTMR.org and I went to that Wikipedia page. If I had not done that, I would have thought this was legit and I would be scrambling trying to figure out a way to pay this at the end of the month, which I do not have the money for right now. I've already emailed the lawyers on this and I'm sure they'll get back to me and say, yeah, it's a scam. Throw it away. But I wanted to warn you because this could have been devastating.