Questions and Concerns About SecureMarkUSA.com

In addition to exposing fraud, we also feel it is our mission to shine a bright light on businesses and people who, in our opinion, show questionable or unprofessional evidence that may suggest their skills or services are not as advertised or expected. Sub-standard business practices, or even misleading details from a business, should be a concern to consumers who are considering using that business or service. This is what brings us to the business called Secure Mark USA, using the domain securemarkusa.com. We spent many weeks investigating this trademark business and found lots of errors, oddities, missing and contradictory information about this business that raises enough concerns for us to conclude that we would personally never choose to use this service. We encourage you to read all the many details below from our investigation so you can be equally informed and draw your own conclusion. Also, by reading this article, you’ll see that there are many different ways for you to investigate a business or service yourself before choosing it! We urge consumers to always carefully review information about any business before deciding to use it! Finally, if you found this article because you are considering filing a trademark, please understand that there is a great deal of fraud in this industry, perpetrated through websites that claim very low costs to file a trademark. Some fraudsters even masquerade as lawyers, when they are not. (Regarding this detailed investigation, we are extremely grateful to have had the help of two attorneys and a businessman in the trademark industry to help us prepare this article. We have lots of screenshots, going back more than 3 months, that provide evidence to support the concerns we raise below. Also, click on any graphic below to enlarge it.)

In early January, 2026 I spoke to Mr. Chris DeMassa, an owner of a trademark business called TradeMark Express in California, regarding hundreds of trademark assistance websites offering misleading services, unrealistic low-cost packages, including many showing various suspicious information. In his opinion, one of these many businesses that he identified as potentially fraudulent was the business called Secure Mark USA, using the domain SecureMarkUSA.com.  In mid-January, we added this business to our list of potentially suspicious trademark-related businesses, found on our webpage titled “Suspicious Trademark Attorney Law Firms.”  In our January post we had stated several suspicious findings about this trademark firm from our investigation, such as….

• Their domain, securemarkusa.com, was registered on 8/29/2024 and but the business claimed 15+ years of experience. (We have a January screenshot of their website showing “15+ years.”)
• Also, in mid-January, Scam-Detector had rated this business as “suspicious/dubious.” However, when we rechecked their rating on February 3, we discovered that Scam-Detector had recently updated their rating of this business and gave them an excellent score of 100/100.

Something very unexpected then happened on February 2, 2026. We received an urgent email from Austin Philips, who identified himself as the Founder and CEO of Secure Mark USA, concerning our January post identifying his business as suspicious. We followed up on that email with a phone call to Mr. Philips using the phone number he provided. I first reached his voicemail and left him a message. A minute later he called me back and I found myself talking to Austin Philips, a man with a very slight accent that I could not place. In both his email and in our phone conversation he expressed his concerns that we were defaming his business. For example, he pointed out the following to us….

1. Though their current domain was registered in August, 2024, their team consists of industry professionals with over 5+ years of individual experience in the intellectual property field. The “15+ years” therefore referred to their total collective expertise rather than the age of their domain. This, therefore, appeared to be our misunderstanding of the information provided on their website. (NOTE: We believe it would be more accurate for their website to read “15+ years of combined experience” rather than “15+ years experience.” Keep in mind that a new 1 year old business with 15 employees could make the claim that they have 15+ years experience just by combining the 1 year experience of each employee.)
2. Mr. Philips also pointed out their many 5-star reviews on Trustpilot from verified clients who have successfully utilized their services.  (As of 3/31/2026, Trustpilot showed 110 reviews for this company, giving them a 4.9 star rating. To their credit, 98% of these reviews were 5-star.)

In response to his email and my conversation with Mr. Philips, we immediately decided to remove Secure Mark USA from our list of fraudulent and suspicious trademark websites. However, we also wanted to revisit this trademark business and conduct a deeper investigation, which began in March, 2026. After this second investigation, we still have many concerns about Secure Mark USA and have listed these concerns below. We want to be very clear to our readers….We are not calling Secure Mark USA a scam business. We have not found conclusive evidence that Secure Mark USA has engaged in fraud, and the concerns below should not be interpreted as proof of wrongdoing. However, because of the concerns detailed below, it is our opinion that this is not a business we would use, or recommend to others.  We urge you to read our list of concerns and then judge for yourself whether or not you would use this business.

It’s also important to note that if you are ever led to believe that the cost of a service, such as trademark registration and assistance, is going to be inexpensive, we urge you to explore this carefully before signing up to use the service. For example, have a video-chat with someone from the business (to help verify the employee and the details of the offer), ask clarifying questions about the full cost, and ask about other possible charges you might not expect despite choosing a low-cost service package. And get their answers in writing! This is important because I have heard from two people who alleged that they were victims of misleading charges by Secure Mark USA. Finally, reach out to three or more trademark services whom you can have a video chat with or meet in person and get their estimate as well.

Recent Investigative Concerns About Secure Mark USA:

1. In their definition of the expression “fine print,” the Merriam-Webster dictionary says it is information that is deliberately obscure. While the Cambridge Dictionary states that “fine print” is printed smaller than the rest of the text, sometimes in the hope that it will not be noticed. (Our use of underlining & italics.) With these definitions in mind, look carefully at the fine print found at the very bottom of the Secure Mark USA website. We believe this small disclaimer is critically important to read! They say…

“Secure Mark USA does not provide legal advice and does not employ attorneys. Our services are limited to assisting business owners and entrepreneurs with the preparation, submission, and monitoring of their trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

All information provided on this website is for general educational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. Any decisions regarding trademark strategy, disputes, or legal interpretations should be discussed with a licensed trademark attorney.”

It strikes us as odd that Secure Mark USA clearly states that they do not employ attorneys in one statement, but in the next statement they inform you that any decisions regarding trademark strategy should be discussed with a licensed trademark attorney. This point also feels terribly confusing to us because of conflicting descriptions we find on their website, their LinkedIn and their X accounts. For example, 

a) On their About Us page they state “Secure Mark USA has a competent team with qualifications from leading law schools in the United States…” (Our use of italics & underlining. We don’t know exactly what they mean by this statement but it may suggest to you that their team includes lawyers.)

b) Though their disclaimer at the bottom of their website states that they do not employ attorneys or provide legal advice, as shown in the screenshot below, their X account says they are a “Lawyer & Law Firm.”

c) The Secure Mark USA Linkedin account shows several times that they are in the “Legal Services” industry and that they offer “Legal Services,” “Legal Consulting” and various services related to several types of laws.

d) On April 12, I used the “site” command in Google to search for the word “attorneys” on the securemarkusa.com website. Google discovered that there is an “About” webpage found at securemarkusa.com/about.html. On this “About” webpage they clearly state “With a team of skilled attorneys…” Also on this page they make two other references to their “legal” services. (NOTE: If you visit this webpage and find it is missing, it possibly means that someone at Secure Mark USA has read this article and taken corrective action. We have screenshots to prove that it existed, in addition to Google’s listing of it.)

In addition to these seemingly conflicting messages about whether or not Secure Mark USA does or does not offer legal advice and services, is an important statement on the United States Patent Trademark Office website itself. The USPTO website clearly states on their Filing Firms webpage “There are businesses, many of which operate online, that advertise low-cost trademark application and registration-related filing services. Many claim to help applicants file new applications, submit responses to official office actions, or help file other documents with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).” And they add…“Make sure that any filing firm you hire has a U.S.-licensed attorney on staff. USPTO rules require that any person or company offering to provide filing and registration services on behalf of others must be a U.S.-licensed attorney.“ (Our use of bold.) 

2. Secure Mark USA shows in several locations (including social media accounts) that their business address is 533 Greenwich St 1D, Hempstead, NY 11550. Given this fact, we checked to see if this business was listed in the official New York State Corporate and Business Entity Database, found at: https://apps.dos.ny.gov/publicInquiry/#search When we searched this database on February 3 and again on April 2, 2026 we did not find a listing under that exact name, despite multiple search attempts. While there may be explanations for this (such as registration under a different name or jurisdiction), the absence of an easily identifiable listing raised questions for us. From a tip we received in early April, we then searched the New Jersey state business registry found at: https://www.njportal.com/DOR/BusinessNameSearch/Search/BusinessName. There we found an entry in New Jersey for Secure Mark USA LLC, entity ID #0451287102, in Branchburg, NJ. (Bizapedia also shows this registration for them in New Jersey.) This business was registered in New Jersey on May 15, 2025 using a “registered agent.” It is our understanding that a registered agent is a designated individual or entity responsible for receiving legal documents, state compliance notices, and lawsuit notifications on behalf of a business. Again, this finding raised questions for us, such as why do they show a business address in New York but are not registered in New York? Why did they register their business through an Agent in New Jersey on May, 2025 but they’ve had an online presence since August, 2024 when their domain was registered.

3. During my February 2 conversation with Mr. Austin Philips, he confirmed that his business was located at 533 Greenwich St, Hempstead, NY 11550. I then pointed out to him that this address had no signage for his business, according to a Google search. Google shows this address as a small group of residential apartments and appears to contradict that his business was located there. Mr. Philips then responded that his business started there and he implied that his employees work from various locations around the US. Coincidentally, Chris DeMassa, owner of TradeMark Express, told me that in his investigation of Secure Mark USA he spoke to the realtor in charge of 533 Greenwich St, Hempstead, NY sometime early in 2026. According to Mr. DeMassa, the realtor said that none of his tenants at this address worked in the trademark industry. Additional evidence of this discrepancy about the Hempstead, NY location for Secure Mark USA was found on a Zillow listing on April 12. Zillow showed this exact address is available for rent. In fact, there was an open house at this property on the afternoon that we discovered this listing. But more importantly, the Zillow listing says that this Apartment has been on the market for rent for 71 days. This 71 day period essentially means that this apartment has been available since February 1, 2026. (Here is the Zillow link. But understand that this post will change or be removed as soon as this property is newly rented.) 

4. We also reviewed this company’s Facebook transparency page section on April 2. It indicated that their account administrators for their Facebook account were located in two countries. Four are in Pakistan and one is in the United States. While this information does not indicate wrongdoing, it stood out to us during our review because we have previously confirmed that there are scammers in Pakistan who have been responsible for many of the suspicious websites found online and targeting Americans. We are not saying that these same 4 people in Pakistan who manage this business’ Facebook account are the scammers we have previously connected to suspicious activity or fraud. Also, we do not know if these 4 managers in Pakistan are associated with this business in any other way besides managing their Facebook page. (NOTE: The Secure Mark USA Facebook account has a “transparency page” containing information about the date the account was started and where in the world people are located who manage that account. To find this transparency page, visit their Facebook account and click on their name in large print, found just underneath the large top banner. A small window will open. Click on the last item in that window, named “Transparency and Privacy Policy.” Then scroll down to the section called “People who manage this page.”)
   [IMPORTANT NOTE: Another concern that we have for any connection to Pakistan is because the US Patent Trademark Office, (and the US Department of Justice) charged several Pakistani companies in 2021-2022 for “engaging in the unauthorized practice of law and providing false, fictitious or fraudulent information in thousands of trademark submissions to the USPTO.” The Pakistani company most associated with this trademark fraud is called Abtach LTD. On November 3, 2021, the USPTO released this official “Show, Cause, Order” against Abtach LTD, doing business as many trademark services online.  Also, Investigative Reporter Brian Krebs published an excellent article about this fraud (and several other offenses), charged against Abtach LTD, and several other related Pakistani companies.]
   
5. When Austin Philips contacted us via email on February 2, he clearly spelled his last name as Philips, with one L and ending in an S. But oddly, we also discovered that Austin Philips spelled his name two other ways on his own Facebook account. Here is a link to the Facebook account for Austin Philips: https://www.facebook.com/p/Austin-Phillip-100094410774013/ If you visit his account, you’ll see that it is the account for Austin Phillip, Senior Manager for Secure Mark USA, using two L’s and no S. And if you look at the August 20, 2025 post on his account, you’ll also see that his name is spelled as Austin Phillps! (with only one i and two L’s.) We think it is very odd that someone misspells their own name multiple times. And if Mr. Philips has staff creating this content, it’s odd that his staff would make this type of mistake, and that no other employee would notice these mistakes, including Mr. Philips himself. (NOTE: If you visit Austin Philips’ Facebook page and do not find these spelling errors, it means that someone may have read this article and corrected these errors. We have screenshots of these spelling errors such as the one below.)
   
   
6. Also, with regard to other oddities on the Secure Mark USA website, we think it is unprofessional and unusual that on their website’s About Us page there is a review by someone named John Dilts who thanks Austin Phillip, the Founder & CEO of this company. The quote spells Austin’s last name incorrectly as Phillip, not Philips. While this may seem like a minor error in a client’s quote, this error has been on their website for over two months now. It is our opinion that any reasonable company’s marketing or web designers would correct a spelling error of their CEO’s name on their website. Also, given the fact that their website disclaimer clearly states that they do not employ attorneys or provide legal advice, we feel that it is also very odd for a client, such as John Dilts, to say “I’m certain that for all my future legal matters, I’ll be turning to them.”  Also very peculiar is that Google found a nearly identical quote by someone named Sarah Mitchell on another one of their pages. For example, the first 17 words of Sarah’s quote differs from John’s quote by just a single apostrophe. In fact, all of Sarah’s quote is found in John Dilt’s quote, other than her use of the apostrophe. Sarah Mitchell’s quote was found on another “About” webpage found at securemarkusa.com/about.html.

7. When we visited the Secure Mark USA About Us webpage on January 7, it clearly stated that they had “15+ Years Experience” and “5000+ Clients Served.” (See screenshot below.) When Mr. Austin Philips contacted us by email on February 2 he said, in part… “While our current domain was registered in 2024, our team consists of industry professionals with over 5+ years of individual experience in the intellectual property field. The “15+ years” (wrong information) refers to our collective expertise and prior industry tenure as we have strong evidence of 5+ years of individual experience…” Oddly, the next day when we revisited the SecureMarkUSA.com About Us page (on February 3, 2026), we discovered that the “15+ Years Experience” had been changed to “5+ Years Experience.” But even stranger than that, the “5000+ Clients Served” had dropped significantly to “1000+ Clients Served.” This change was still in place on April 1 and 8. Why would this business make such a change? You may argue that perhaps an employee left the business, taking many years of experience from their team. However, why would their number of “clients served” drop from 5000+ to 1000+? The reason for this change is unclear based on publicly available information, but these changes raised questions for us about the consistency of the information presented on their web site.

8. On their company’s Facebook page and their X account is a large, red header at the top with the words “Trademark Registration Experts.” If they are experts, we find it odd that they misspelled a word just below this statement. The next words in this large header state “USPTO Filing • Refilling • Abandoned Applications • Office Action.”  The word “Refilling” should be Refiling. Refilling something means to replenish the supply of something. Refiling something means the act of submitting, recording, or storing a document, legal case, or item again, often following a rejection, error, or retrieval. (NOTE: if you visit their Facebook or X accounts and do not see this spelling error, it is again possible that they have read our published article and made this correction as a result.) On their own, these spelling errors are a small issue, but in combination with other inconsistencies, they have contributed to our overall impression about this company. (Also, please see that in this screenshot of their Facebook account they refer to themselves as a “Legal Service.”)

9. The Secure Mark USA website states that they “are recognized” by WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization). We visited the WIPO online database that allows visitors to search for businesses in their database. We searched for Secure Mark USA, owned by Austin Philips and found no result showing Secure Mark USA. We then tried an advanced search for the exact business name (in quotes) “Secure Mark USA” and again found nothing. We also tried to search for “Secure Mark” without the USA and the WIPO database returned 8 results, 3 of which were located in the USA.  However, none of these 8 were the trademark firm known as Secure Mark USA. Finally, we searched for Secure Mark USA, selecting USA as the “designated country” and trademark as their goods & services. The database returned 43 businesses across the United States. But again, none of these businesses were Secure Mark USA. Also on the securemarkusa.com website, and seen in the screenshot below, this business claims to be “USPTO Authorized” and an “Official filing partner” of the USPTO. However, the USPTO is a government entity and does not have business partners. On this USPTO web page, this government office states “There are numerous companies that state they will help you file your application. Some of these companies may offer legitimate services; others do not. Be aware that trademark filing companies are not the same as law firms. If you use one of these companies, you will pay their separate services fees as well as our fees. We don’t endorse the use of these filing companies.” The USPTO cannot recommend any company. This also explains why we can’t find any “filing partners” when we searched the USPTO website.

10. Various reviews found on the Secure Mark USA website, on their Facebook account, and on reviews found on Trustpilot.com, speak highly of six of the Secure Mark USA employees. These named employees include Austin Philips (Founder & CEO), Paxton Wells, Daniel Roy, Timothy Fox, Rick Barnes, Charles Henry, and Ian Miller. However, in early April we were unable to locate profiles of any of these employees, including the Founder & CEO, on LinkedIn.com that include their business name. This is not a sign of fraud. However, this stood out to us given the number of named personnel presented publicly. Even their company LinkedIn account states that there are “0 associated members.” Here are the LinkedIn search results for each name that also include the business name Secure Mark USA: Austin Philips (Founder & CEO), Paxton Wells, Daniel Roy, Timothy Fox, Rick Barnes, Charles Henry, and Ian Miller. (If you click these search links and now discover a LinkedIn account for these names and the business name Secure Mark USA, it likely means that these accounts were added or modified after the publication of our article.) (Keep in mind that, according to their website’s “fine print,” none of these employees are attorneys.)

11. Social media has repeatedly been found to be terribly unreliable when it comes to accurate or truthful information because it is so easily manipulated and there are few safeguards. Facebook, in particular, is notoriously bad for allowing and enabling misinformation, disinformation, and fraud. We have written about this problem multiple times, including this article about cybercriminals in Asia targeting Americans on Facebook. Similarly, in our investigation of the Secure Mark USA Facebook account, we found concerns and anomalies, though they were not directly related to this business. The Secure Mark USA Facebook page included a display of “likes” from their account to other businesses, people and organizations. On March 31, 2026, we saw that some of these “likes” were for other Trademark businesses. One of these other trademark companies is called “Trademark Winners” found at the domain trademarkwinners.com. We find Trademark Winners to be suspicious and possibly a scam website for several reasons….a) The trademarkwinners.com website shows their address as 1043 Garland Ave, San Jose, CA 95126-3159. We used Google to visit this address and it shows that there are 3 units located there, A, B and C. None of these Units shows a business name called Trademark Winners. However, we called one of these businesses at this location and spoke with a woman from Express Copy & More (in Unit C). The woman said that they rent mailboxes to other people and businesses for use. She told us that they do not rent a mailbox to a business called Trademark Winners. She also said that she has never heard of this business.
    
    b) As we said, Trademark Winners shows their address in San Jose, California. The city of San Jose, California has a public database that shows what businesses are registered with the city of San Jose. It can be found online at sanjoseca.gov. When we searched this database for Trademark Winners, this San Jose government website said “no business found.”
    
    c) On the trademarkwinners.com website, they state “We have been providing assistance to our clients for more than 20 years, and we have maintained a 100% satisfaction score.” (Oddly, in two other locations on their top page they say they “have more than 10 years experience” and “has 10 years of experience.” Why wouldn’t it also be “more than 20 years experience? And yet, the domain trademarkwinners.com was registered just over 3 years ago on January 13, 2023.

    d) On the trademarkwinners.com website there are only 2 client reviews that quickly cycle across the screen. One review is supposedly from James Collins of Devon Energy and the other is from Charles Roberts of A.G.Edwards Inc. But the image used to represent Mr. James Collins of Devon Energy is a stock photo found on more than 100 websites across the Internet. Also, we were able to locate about 70+ employees of Devon Energy, which is a legitimate company, on LinkedIn. But none of these employees whom we found had the name James Collins. As for the image of Charles Roberts, it is definitely a stock photo that can be found in the iStock photo collection. Also making the review by Charles Roberts seem less credible is the fact that the testimonial states that he works for A.G.Edwards Inc. According to Google’s AI, “A.G. Edwards is no longer in business as an independent entity. The firm was acquired by Wachovia in 2007 and subsequently became part of Wells Fargo in 2008. The A.G. Edwards name was phased out, and its operations were merged into Wells Fargo Advisors.”

     

The second trademark business that is “liked” by the Secure Mark USA Facebook page is called Trademark Wing, using the domain trademarkwing.com. Scam-Detector rates trademarkwing.com as risky, unsafe, and untrustworthy (as of 3/31/2026). Their domain, trademarkwing.com, was registered using Namecheap on January 3, 2025, about 15 months before we found it. The Trademark Wing website states that their address is 1680 Michigan Ave, Suite 700, Miami, Florida 33139. However, a Google search makes it very clear that Suite 700 at this address is the location of the building’s management company. We called the management company of this building in Miami, Florida and spoke to the owner. He and his staff confirmed that there is no such business named Trademark Wing located in their building, and certainly not at Suite 700. Moreover, when we informed the owner about this trademark service website using his address, he said “it happens all the time.” Sad to hear that but he’s not alone in this type of abuse.

12. On February 3, Secure Mark USA had 247 followers on their Facebook page, according to Facebook. By April 1, that number had increased to 292 followers. However, only 14 Followers were visible to our inspection. Of these 14, several stood out as odd, suspicious or untrustworthy in our opinion (we have screenshots verifying the information below from April 1, 2026), such as…

• Teri Haynes – her account had just 2 followers and the last 2 posts were made in October, 2024, less than 2 months after the business domain SecureMarkUSA.com was registered via Namecheap. Also, the two nearly identical photos found in Teri Haynes’ account are stock images, according to a reverse image search on Google. This photo was found in many articles and websites, including this LinkedIn Account in which the picture is credited as coming from the stock photo company called Pexels
• Umdo – her account had just 1 follower, 1 photo with 1 post from February, 2025. The Transparency page for this account says that it is managed by 2 people in Bangladesh. 
• Tou – Tou has zero followers, no photos (Other than the letter T against a green background), and one bizarre post from December 10, 2020 that says “hfhfhftgh.”
• Roland Maxwell – On February 3, Roland had 1 follower, and 10 posts that began with his 2 profile photos, submitted on October 15, 2024, just less than 2 months after SecureMarkUSA.com was registered. His last post was “Woah u are perfect” made on August 10, 2025. His posts were very brief and the language was odd. For example, on April 27, 2025 he said “I love the authenticity and creativity on this page.” It feels like mockery considering what his page has on it. We also found it very interesting that one of his posts had included a photo of a woman in a wedding dress, and was written in a foreign language. When we asked Google to translate that post, it informed us that it means “I’m just dreaming” and was written in Pangasinan, a language spoken primarily in the Pangasinan Province of the Philippines. When we asked Google to conduct a reverse image search of the photo of the man posted as the profile for Roland Maxwell, it found it on a dozen social media sites. It appears to be a photo of a model/actor named John Michael. However, when we checked Roland’s Facebook page again on April 1, we discovered that it had been taken down. This can happen when someone violates Facebook’s rules, but we have no proof of this about Roland Maxwell’s account.
• The Transparency pages of a few other followers for Secure Mark USA’s Facebook page also show that they are managed by people in Bangladesh and Pakistan. E.g. Jeannette Walker and Sea Salt Immigration Services (NOTE: Sea Salt’s Facebook account link misspelled the word immigration as “immegration.” An error like this can happen when a person or entity first creates their Facebook account.)

To be clear, none of this information related to their Facebook “likes” or “Followers” proves anything about the legitimacy of Secure Mark USA. However, in our opinion, we personally find it concerning that their account appears to have connections to other fraudulent or questionable businesses and odd accounts. It is also an odd coincidence that their Secure Mark USA Facebook page is managed by people in Pakistan, according to Facebook, because we had previously discovered that there is at least 1 apparent fraudster in Pakistan who is behind a significant amount of trademark business fraud in the United States and this is also stated on a USPTO website document.

13. On February 4, 2026, we saw that Secure Mark USA had 84 outstanding reviews on Trustpilot.com. The records now show that the Secure Mark USA business now has more than 100 outstanding reviews on Trustpilot and another 45 excellent reviews on Google, as of 3/31/2026. However, in today’s digital age, online reviews are often manipulated and cannot be fully trusted. This is especially possible when reviews are fewer than a couple of hundred. We are not saying that the reviews of Secure Mark USA are fake or contain lies. However, when our own US Federal Trade Commission says that reviews cannot be fully trusted, we have to take this into consideration. (We should note that in June, 2025 someone on Reddit left a post about an email they allegedly received from Secure Mark USA that is highly suspicious. You can read that post here on Reddit.)

In addition to the concerns we have indicated above, Mr. Chris DeMasa, the owner of TradeMark Express, put me in touch with a woman who had reported to him that she was a victim of fraud related to registering a trademark. I interviewed this woman on February 12, 2026. She asked me not to publish her name, but we are allowed to tell our readers what she told me about the alleged scam-like practices that she said involved Secure Mark USA. (I did not independently verify this woman’s statements about Secure Mark USA.) This woman claimed that she originally received an email in March, 2024 from someone named Nicholas J Tomic, representing a company called Trademark Crafty. The email claimed that someone was planning to trademark the name of her business. She had owned this business for more than 30 years. (Others on Reddit have reported receiving similar emails.) She responded and agreed to file a trademark to protect her business name. She was initially told that the cost started at $49. (NOTE: According Google Ad Transparency, SecureMarkUSA.com purchased three Google Ads sometime during the week of November 15-22, 2025 and these Ads ran until December 3, 2025. Each of these three Google Ads said that Secure Mark USA was offering trademark registration services for $49. These ads used statements like “Get your trademark online in just $49” and “File your trademark for $49.” Based on our conversations with two trademark attorneys, another trademark business and a visit to the USPTO, this $49 cost is completely misleading and impossibly low. For example, the filing fee alone at the USPTO starts at $350 per Class of trademark. One trademark attorney told me that the typical trademark cost is about $3,500.) To put it another way, if someone offers you a Rolex watch for $49, we hope you know better than to purchase it.

Unfortunately, invoices for the woman’s trademark filing kept increasing significantly and repeatedly for various reasons. The woman then told me that one of these invoices came from the business called SecureMark USA LLC for $1000 on 6/12/25. She was asked to pay for this invoice via Paypal rather than by check or credit card. She also received another invoice from SecureMark USA for $1400 for filing her trademark. In total, she told me that her initial $49 cost skyrocketed to $6,999 over the course of about a year! In early 2026, this woman found TradeMark Express and this company helped her. Chris DeMassa also told me that when Secure Mark USA filed this woman’s trademark in her name with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (https://www.uspto.gov/) it was Secure Mark USA who signed the application, not the woman.  And when they did this they used their business email address and not the woman’s email address. He said this means that If anything comes up regarding the trademark and she wishes to contact the USPTO office, she must do it through Secure Mark USA, incurring additional charges. 

It’s also important to note that this woman whom I interviewed told me that she spoke to an Attorney several times in her effort to trademark her business. He gave his name as Attorney Nicholas J Tomic. He said his address was 1710 Sutter St. Concord, CA 94520 and his phone number was 925-695-1550. The woman also told me that Attorney Tomic had a faint accent, though she had no idea where it came from. When I searched the California Bar Association’s website for this attorney, there was only one name that matched Attorney Nicholas J Tomic, in California.  However, this Attorney is listed as working for a Real Estate related law firm in California. On April 1, 2026, I called Attorney Nicholas Tomic and spoke to him personally. He confirmed for me that he has never had a client with this woman’s name, and from the city and state where she is located.  Attorney Tomic then told me that he is aware that his name has been misused by fraudsters for some time now, most especially about a year ago! Many people have contacted him claiming his name was used as part of a fraud. He has notified the California Bar Association, and others, but has been told that there is nothing they can do because these fraudsters are typically located outside the US. We also want to point out that the Attorney Nicholas J Tomic we spoke to has no accent at all. When we conducted a search for the address (and the phone number) that the fake Attorney Tomic gave to the victim, 1710 Sutter St. Concord, CA 94520, it led us to another post on LinkedIn about trademark fraud by a real trademark attorney named Eric Perrott. The trademark fraud identified by Attorney Perrott also included this Concord, California address and that phone number. Coincidentally, Mr. Chris DeMassa conducted his own investigation and personally visited 1710 Sutter St. in Concord, California. He told me that it is a vacant lot.

Individually, each of the points above may have reasonable explanations or seem minor. However, as we stated in our opening paragraph…when taken together, this collection of information raises enough unanswered questions that we would personally hesitate to trust the services of Secure Mark USA. We encourage readers to carefully review all available information, verify business credentials independently, and make their own informed decision before engaging with any trademark services provider. As an added safeguard, insist on a video chat with the business you are considering hiring!  Also, note that the US Patent & Trademark Office has an excellent article about hiring a Trademark Attorney versus filing yourself. 

(This article reflects our opinions based on publicly available information at the time of writing. We encourage readers to conduct their own independent research before making decisions.)

FOOTNOTES: 

• Secure Mark USA has invested a lot of time and effort in their social media accounts and show many professional looking posts, though some contain errors as we have pointed out. Some of their posts show photos of people whom you might assume are employees from their firm. We did a reverse image search on two of these photos and found them to be stock photos found on many sites around the world, from the UK to Russia. Here are two examples of photos used by Secure Mark USA that were also found on many other websites (as of 4/2/2026)…

          – https://www.diylegals.co.uk/best-solicitors-in-milton-keynes/

          – https://www.more4floors.com/tabouret-ergonomique/

• People from Secure Mark USA have already demonstrated that they read our articles and make changes to their website in response to what we post. We strongly suspect that that they will make lots of updates and improvements to their website and Facebook account based on our more recent investigation. Fortunately, we have taken lots of screenshots over several months to support our investigation.