Canada's Agent Regulator CPATA Updates Its IP Scam Warning: Fake Opposition Notices Among the Key Risks, CIPO Urges Direct Verification

Canada's regulator of patent and trade mark agents, the College of Patent Agents and Trademark Agents (CPATA), updated its scam warning for Canadian businesses and IP rights holders again on 28 September; the page was first published on 14 January 2025 and the updated list of schemes includes impersonating the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) or agencies by email, text and phone, demanding false trade mark renewal fees, claiming that a third party is applying to register your trade mark and creating urgency by pointing to Canada's first-to-file system in place since 2019, and fake opposition notices designed to create urgency.

CPATA also updated its lists of suspicious websites, misused organisation names and phone numbers, and points to the typical signals: messages that claim an urgent patent or trade mark matter requiring immediate attention, that cite business and trade mark details drawn from public records to look credible, and that press for prompt payment or personal information.

CPATA advises recipients to check its public register to see whether the sender is a registered agent, to confirm that messages come from an official Government of Canada email domain and to verify by calling CIPO's official number, not to reply to suspicious messages but to contact their own agent, and, if money has been sent, to contact their financial institution at once and report to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and to CPATA.

CIPO, for its part, warned in its IP Scam Awareness Zone on 7 July 2026 that applicants have been sent a fake statement of opposition resembling an official CIPO document, falsely claiming that a proceeding had been started against their trade mark application; CIPO advises anyone unsure about correspondence concerning an opposition proceeding to verify it directly with CIPO, official trade mark records being available through the Canadian Trademarks Database and the Trademarks Document Retrieval Service, and paper correspondence coming only from CIPO's official address in Gatineau.

Earlier, in an alert of 30 April 2026, CIPO had reported an active phishing campaign in North America by individuals posing as intellectual property lawyers and agents, some of whose emails misused the names of registered agents.

This is not a reform but a continuously updated risk list, and for Canadian trade mark applicants it works as an immediate client risk alert: the scams succeed because they quote genuine information from public databases and dress up Canada's first-to-file rule, renewal deadlines and opposition procedure as reasons to pay.

J&C recommends that companies with trade marks in Canada forward this warning to their marketing, finance and legal contacts: check any message about renewal fees, a third party registering your mark or an opposition proceeding with a registered agent or CIPO's official channels before paying or replying; confirm through CIPO's official database whether an opposition proceeding exists and never pay to an account named in a message; and pass suspicious messages to your own agent, report them to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and CPATA, and contact the bank at once if money has been paid.

Source: cpata-cabamc.ca | ised-isde.canada.ca | ised-isde.canada.ca