Brand Ventures Intellectual Property Law

I spoke with Mr. Anderson in September about acquiring rights to a piece of intellectual property. I simply needed him to research and inform me of who the current owner of those rights were. After a very friendly conversation in which Mr. Anderson walked me through the process, I contacted him the following day to pay him and get the ball rolling.
The first red flag was that he wanted me to send the money via PayPal labeled as a «gift» so he wouldn’t incur any PayPal fees. I felt that a tad sketchy but then I brushed it off, «he’s doing the work for me, I’ll pay the small fee.» The following day Mr. Anderson requested more money because he «need (ed) to pay a bill.» I still have this text message exchange. I sent him more funds but not before he again asked me to send it as a «gift» and not payment for services. This time I stood my ground — I was paying him for services and I wanted the record to reflect that. So I again sent PayPal payment to his assistant via PayPal. (The exact same process as the first time however labeled as payment for services, not a «gift»).
I’d needed the aforementioned information from Mr. Anderson for an October 5^th meeting, a fact that he was made aware of when we spoke mid-​September.
My first correspondence with him after paying him was to set up a time to discuss his findings over the phone. This was approximately two weeks after paying him to simply browse through pre-​1977 copyright records. We set a date and time which I had to reschedule for the following day. When I called him at the set time I received no answer. Later I emailed him and he responded that he’d missed me because he was busy. No problem, I assured him. I asked that he call me back. That was two months ago.
It is now December 5 and after sending numerous emails, the first few of which politely asked him to update me on the status of his findings, the latter few of which politely asked for a refund of my money, I have yet to hear from Mr. Anderson. Keep in mind that even after I’d attended my meeting without the pertinent information I’d paid Mr. Anderson to obtain, I was still willing to pay him if he simply provided me with the information. As time went on, however, this became unacceptable so I requested a full refund, still in a very polite and understanding fashion.
When I try to get a refund via PayPal directly, I’m told I can only be refunded the portion I paid him the second time when against his wishes, I sent it as «payment for services». Being that the first payment was the largest amount and now I have no PayPal recourse, I cannot help but wonder if Mr. Anderson deliberately asked me to send the money as a gift so should he duck and dodge me, I would have to take him to small claims court to retrieve my funds. This of course is a slightly larger hassle than clicking a few buttons on PayPal and most people would walk away. A principled person, however, would not.
Still, wanting to avoid this, I again left Mr. Anderson a polite message within the last 30 minutes asking him to call me «so that we may amicably rectify this situation.» What is most disturbing is that my email client informs me when people open my emails. I’ve sent Mr. Anderson two emails and left two voicemail messages for him (all polite) this week alone. He has read both of my emails literally within minutes of receiving them, yet has lacked the professionalism to return either call or email to sort this situation out. After our very friendly and informative conversations prior to this event, I am saddened that things suddenly took this unforeseen turn.

I am a small business owner. Brand Ventures registered my trademark and when it was opposed, worked diligently, expertly and affordably to defend my trademark — ultimately prevailing. I especially enjoy working with Evan, he is bright, savvy beyond his years and is as invested in his clients as they are in their intellectual property. I have recommended Brand Ventures to friends and they have all been satisfied.

Brand Ventures is a full service IP firm that has helped us with just about anything you can imagine when it comes to IP law and other matters affecting your brand. We’ve worked with them for over 3 years now and they have helped us build a portfolio of trademarks and copyrights that is one of our businesses core assets. They are great to work with, offer a ton of added value and have been very helpful throughout our time working with them.