The Trademark Email That Says Someone Else Is About to Take Your Business Name

VERDICT: VERIFIED (V5)

The message sounds like professional legal correspondence: somebody else is supposedly about to register your business or brand name, but you have one last chance to act first.

CLAIM

Businesses are receiving trademark approaches that misuse the identities or regulatory details of genuine solicitors and firms.

EVIDENCE

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has issued repeated alerts during 2026 describing closely similar approaches. The emails tell recipients that a third party has approached the sender to register the recipient’s UK brand or company name and seek exclusive rights. The recipient is then invited to secure trademark registration first, with the sender offering assistance.

SRA alerts dated 8 April, 7 May, 13 May, 16 June, 13 July, 16 July, 19 August, 9 September and 10 September 2026 document variants misusing names or details associated with genuine solicitors or firms.

TEST

The repetition across separate SRA alerts establishes the recurring method. It does not establish that every approach came from one criminal group, and TVD makes no such attribution.

VERDICT

V5 — Verified.

How to prevent it

• Do not treat an SRA number or a genuine solicitor’s name as proof that the sender is that person.
• Look up the solicitor or firm independently using the SRA’s official records and use independently obtained contact details.
• Do not use the telephone number, email address or website supplied in the unexpected message to perform that verification.
• If a trademark issue may be genuine, verify it independently before paying or instructing anyone.

Warning signs

• An unsolicited legal-looking email says somebody else is about to register your business or brand name.
• You are pressured to instruct the sender immediately to protect the name.
• The sender uses genuine-looking solicitor or SRA details but contact information does not match independently verified records.

What to do if you responded

Stop further payment or correspondence until the sender has been independently verified. If you paid, contact your bank. If you supplied account credentials, secure them. Preserve the original email, headers, attachments and payment instructions.

Where to report it

Check and report suspected solicitor impersonation through the SRA’s official channels and use the appropriate fraud-reporting route if money was lost. See Fraud First Aid.

Sources: Solicitors Regulation Authority scam alerts published throughout April–September 2026.

Evidence boundary: genuine solicitors and firms named in SRA alerts are victims of identity/detail misuse; TVD does not suggest they participated in the scam.