In recent years, we have repeatedly warned against fraudulent invoices in this newsletter, a phenomenon that pops up from time to time.
Unsuspecting companies then receive an invoice from an official-looking, but usually non-existent IP authority, for maintaining an entry in some obscure register or database, for example. The recipient is quick to reason that it is more advantageous to proceed with payment than to find out all the way through what the invoice actually refers to. And that is exactly what the counterparty is counting on. The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has a hotline for such deceptive practices, and its site lists examples of fake invoices. A forewarned entrepreneur still counts for two.
