SECTIONS 8 · 9 · 15
Trademark Renewal & Maintenance
Registrations are cancelled for missed maintenance filings more often than for anything else. We docket yours and file on time.
Overview
A federal registration is not permanent by default. It has to be maintained, on a schedule set by statute, with declarations proving you are still using the mark in commerce. Miss one of those windows and the registration is cancelled — not suspended, cancelled — and the only way back is a new application with a new priority date.
The USPTO sends courtesy reminders to whatever email address is on file. If that address belonged to a filing service you used once in 2019, or to a founder who has since left, nobody sees them. This is the single most common way good brands lose their registration.
Turnaround
Filed inside the statutory window. Grace periods exist for some filings on payment of a surcharge, but they are not something to rely on.
Price
$249 + USPTO fee
What is included
Everything in trademark renewal & maintenance
Section 8 declaration of use
Due between the fifth and sixth year after registration. We prepare the declaration, review your specimen and file it inside the window.
Section 15 incontestability
Filed alongside the Section 8 where you qualify. It substantially strengthens your registration against later challenges to its validity, and it is often skipped simply because nobody mentions it.
Section 9 renewal
Due every ten years, filed with a combined Section 8. We handle the pair together.
Specimen review
Maintenance filings are refused for bad specimens just as applications are. We check yours actually evidences current use for the goods listed.
Goods audit
If you have stopped selling some of the goods in your registration, they need to be deleted. Declaring use for goods you no longer sell puts the whole registration at risk.
Docketing
Every future deadline recorded and reminded on, so this never becomes an emergency again.
How it works
What happens, in order
- 01
Send your registration number
We pull the full file history and every upcoming deadline from the USPTO.
- 02
We audit
Current use confirmed, goods reviewed, specimen checked, eligibility for Section 15 assessed.
- 03
We prepare and file
Declaration drafted for your signature, then filed inside the statutory window with confirmation to you.
- 04
We docket what comes next
Your next deadline goes on our calendar and you get reminders well in advance.
Questions
Trademark Renewal & Maintenance FAQs
There is a six-month grace period after the Section 8 window with an additional government surcharge. After that the registration is cancelled and cannot be revived. You would have to file a new application and lose your original priority date.
You do not need it, but you almost always want it. Incontestable status removes several grounds on which a third party could later attack your registration, and it costs comparatively little to claim at the same time as the Section 8.
That matters. A specimen has to show the mark essentially as registered. If your current use has drifted materially from the registered form, the safer route is often a new application for the current mark alongside maintaining the old one.
Ask about Renewal & maintenance
We reply to every message within one business day. Or email support@trademarkfidelity.com.
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