TIME AND PROCEDURE

a The most rapid and trouble-free trademark registration will take six to eight months from application to registration. More troublesome applications can take years b. When an application is submitted, it is immediately given a serial number and application date, and is assigned to an Examining Attorney at the Trademark Office. However, the application will not be examined for several weeks c. Once the examination begins, the Examining Attorney will review the application, as well as the specimen to de- termine that the mark is being properly used. The Examining Attorney will search the records of federal and state trademark offices, dictionaries, business directories, the internet and other sources to determine the meaning of the mark, whether confusingly similar marks are already in use, and whether the mark is objectionable for any of the reasons listed above If the Examining Attorney has questions or reasons for objecting to registration, the Examining Attorney generates an “Office Action” which is sent to the applicant or the applicant’s attorney. The Office Action is usually issued 45 - 90 days after the application date The applicant then has six months in which to respond to the Office Action If no response is submitted within that time, the application will be deemed abandoned There is a procedure for reviving an abandoned application within a specified period, for good cause shown and on payment of a fee. If there is no good cause, or the request is made too late, an entirely new application will have to be filed d. After a response to an Office Action is submitted, the Examining Attorney can issue another Office Action, and the applicant can respond, and this can go back and forth for some time If the Examining Attorney issues a “final refusal”, the applicant can appeal to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. A trial within the Trademark Office is held If the applicant is dissatisfied with the ruling of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, the applicant can bring a lawsuit in federal court. e If the Trademark Office finds no basis for objection to registration of the mark, the mark will be published in a Trademark Office publication, the Official Gazette This publication allows the public a 30-day period in which to review and object to marks that are scheduled for registration. If no objections are received, then the registration will be issued, and the applicant will receive a formal certificate of registration with a registration number and date. If objections are received, then the objection procedures must be followed. Those procedures are beyond the scope of this document