A Latvian national fakes the Patent and Trademark Office and is sentenced for mail fraud
Viktors Suhorukovs, a citizen of Latvia, pleaded guilty to four counts of mail fraud and was sentenced in September 2021 in the District of South Carolina to more than four years in federal prison, with more than $4.5 million in restitution ordered. Through two companies called "Patent and Trademark Office, LLC" and "Patent and Trademark Bureau, LLC" he sent trademark owners fake renewal notices demanding inflated fees. More than 2,900 registrants were affected.
- Year
- 2021
- Where
- United States, LV
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $4.5 million
- Victims
- 2,900
- Schemes
- Trademark solicitation scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-20
The facts, as recorded
- The case is United States v. Suhorukovs, No. 6:20-cr-00210, in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.
- He ran the scheme from about March 2017 until about January 2020, using the names 'Patent and Trademark Office' and 'Patent and Trademark Bureau' to give the impression of being the real USPTO.
- The letters told registrants their registrations would expire sooner than they actually would, then asked for 'renewal' fees well above the real USPTO rates. The companies had no authority to renew anything.
- One example notice carried a deadline of September 15, 2021, when that registration's real renewal deadline was September 15, 2024.
- He pleaded guilty to four counts of mail fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1341) and was ordered to pay more than $4.5 million in restitution.
- Assets seized included almost $2.3 million in bank accounts and $1.28 million in checks he tried, unsuccessfully, to deposit.
- One registrant who paid a 'renewal' notice sent $1,850 to the company's Washington, D.C. address, according to Bloomberg Law.
Why this case matters
Trademark owners had been complaining about look-alike “bureaus” for years. This was a rare criminal prosecution of one, and its facts are unusually plain: the defendant did not offer a dubious service, he offered a renewal he had no power to grant, on a deadline that was wrong.
What the notices got wrong
The notices were built on public data. Trademark filings carry the owner’s name and address, so a mailing list needs no hacking. What made them work was the framing: an official-sounding name, an urgent deadline, and a fee stated as a plain amount due. One notice used a September 2021 deadline for a registration whose real date was three years later.
The caveat
Suhorukovs pleaded guilty and was sentenced, so the core facts are established by the conviction. The figures for victims and restitution come from the government’s announcement as reported by the USPTO and law-firm summaries. The DOJ announcement itself could not be fetched directly for this page, and secondary sources differ slightly on the sentencing date (the USPTO page gives September 20, law firms September 15, 2021), which is why this page says only “September 2021”.
Sources
- Criminal conviction in trademark renewal solicitation scam. United States Patent and Trademark Office. Accessed 2026-09-20. Supports: The defendant, the two company names, the four mail-fraud counts, the sentence of more than four years, the $4.5 million restitution and the false-expiry misrepresentation.
- Four-Year Sentence for Trademark Scammer. Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig. Accessed 2026-09-20. Supports: The March 2017 to January 2020 operating period, the more than 2,900 victims, the seized bank funds and checks, and the fake-deadline example.
- Small Justice for Those Scammed by Fake Trademark Solicitations. Aronberg Goldgehn Davis & Garmisa. Accessed 2026-09-20. Supports: The case number and court, the use of the public USPTO database to target registrants, and the warnings of imminent abandonment.
- Surge in Trademark Fraud Scams Overwhelms Regulators, Applicants. Bloomberg Law. Accessed 2026-09-20. Supports: The $1,850 payment by one registrant to the company's Washington, D.C. address.