Not Dead Yet: USPTO Enacts Rules for Reviving Trademark Registrations

New USPTO rules went into effect on July 8, 2017 regarding the procedures to bring trademark registrations and applications back to life after abandonment, cancellation, or expiration. The key takeaways relate to the deadlines for filing the necessary petitions, which can vary depending on whether notice was received from the USPTO.

For example, in the case of abandoned trademark applications, if you received notice, then a petition to revive must be filed within two months of when the notice issued. However, if no notice was received, then the two-month period for filing does not start until the date of awareness of the abandonment.

Similarly, petitions to the director after receipt of a notice of cancellation or expiration, or notice of denial of certification of an international application, must be received within two months of the date issue.

Generally, there is a six-month window to file petitions if no notice was received; this window is based on the actual date of abandonment appearing in USPTO electronic records. The timeliness rule can only be waived in a petition to the director that details an “extraordinary situation,” which according to the TMEP exists for “disasters like fires, hurricanes, and snowstorms,” but not for oversights, inadvertent errors, or changes of attorneys.

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