Fake trade mark invoice company ordered to stop advertising

Community Trade Marks & Designs sent direct mailings to companies which had the appearance of invoices for trade mark services. In fact they were not invoices and the companies which received them had no contract with Community Trade Marks & Designs.

Small print in the adverts clarified that the leaflets were just marketing, but the ASA said that that admission did not remove the impression that the leaflet was a bill.

"This is not a bill. This is a solicitation," said the small print. "You are under no obligation to pay the amount stated underneath unless you accept the offer ... This is an update fee for 2009 registration."

The ASA said that the advert had "the appearance of a bill".

"We considered the overall impression of the ad was such that it implied it was an official request for payment," it said.

The ASA ruling said that it recognised that the small print described the ad's true nature. "That text was very small, however, and we nevertheless considered it contradicted the overall impression that the ad was an official request for payment. We considered the small print did not go far enough in removing that impression and the ad did not make sufficiently clear that it was a marketing communication. We concluded that the ad misleadingly implied that it was an official request for payment," said the ruling.

The company did not respond to the ASA's investigation but has been told not to repeat the advert.

The ASA can refer the more serious cases that it encounters to the OFT. An ASA spokesman said that its first step, though, is to make a ruling based on its own Code of Practice.

"If this becomes an ongoing issue then it will be escalated through our available sanctions," he said. "There is nothing stopping the statutory authorities like the OFT taking action, though. We are taking action on the advertising practice, not the trading practice."