MAINTAIN YOUR REGISTRATION
Your trademark registration must be maintained periodically with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. An initial maintenance filing is required between the fifth and sixth year following registration, and renewal filings are required at the tenth year and every ten years after. If you fail to file, your registration will be cancelled — and with it, important trademark rights. We docket your deadlines, prepare the filings, and manage any issues the USPTO raises along the way.
To maintain your trademark registration, you must file the following periodically with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office:
Declaration of Use (filed between the 5th and 6th year following registration)
Declaration of Use & Renewal (filed between the 9th and 10th year, and every ten years after)
Although each filing window is a year long, we advise clients to file early in the window. The USPTO takes time to review these filings, and if an issue arises — a specimen that doesn't satisfy the examiner, for example — an early filing leaves time to cure the problem with new evidence before the window closes. A last-minute filing may leave no room to fix anything.
You may also file a Declaration of Incontestability following five years of continuous use (subject to filing deadlines). Once your registration is determined incontestable, certain third-party challenges to it are no longer available.
Trademark Maintenance & Renewal
Use Requirements
These filings are sworn declarations that your mark is in use in commerce — and the details are critical. The mark you're using must match the mark you registered: for stylized marks and logos especially, a redesign or updated logo can put the registration at risk.
The declaration must also be accurate for every listed good and service, so each filing is the moment to review your identifications and remove anything no longer in use — registrations covering goods or services where the mark isn't used can be challenged by third parties under recently adopted USPTO procedures, and the USPTO also conducts random post-registration audits requiring additional proof of use.
We review your current use against your registration before filing — mark, specimens, and the full list of goods and services — so the declaration is accurate and the registration stays defensible and in force.
MONITOR EXISTING MARKS
As a holder of a federal registration, failure to notify potential infringers of your mark can result in the dilution or loss of your trademark rights. Our trademark monitoring service protects your rights, watching the USPTO for potentially infringing applications. Our service also monitors relevant commercial markets for possible infringement so that you can preserve and enforce your trademark. We also review your own use of your trademark to ensure its proper use to maintain your trademark rights.
TRADEMARK MONITORING
We provide you with regular updates to protect and maintain your trademark registration.
Our service monitors:
all new filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that might infringe on your trademark.
other commercial use of trademarks in the U.S. that may be confusingly similar.
your use of your trademark to ensure you properly protect your trademark rights.
dates required for U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filings to renew and maintain your registration.
Contact us for more information.
Use the form below to contact us regarding monitoring, maintaining or renewing your trademark registration. You may also email or call us to make an appointment.