Trademark Maintenance & Enforcement Checklist

A free checklist for owners of a registered mark. Your Section 8, 9, and 15 deadlines with space to write in your own dates, what to have ready before each filing, how to use the mark so you keep it, and what to do when you find someone else using it.

A registration is not permanent

Federal registrations are cancelled for missed maintenance filings far more often than they are lost in disputes. The deadlines are real and the USPTO does not chase you.

Section 8 is a declaration of continued use. Section 9 is renewal. Section 15 is the optional filing that makes a registration incontestable after five years of continuous use, foreclosing several grounds of challenge.

The checklist gives you the sequence with space to write in your own dates from your registration certificate, which is the only version that is any use.

Keeping the mark alive through use

• Use it consistently in the form it was registered. Substantial changes to how the mark appears can undermine the registration.
• Use it on all the goods and services you registered. Dropping a category can cost you that part of the registration at the next filing.
• Keep specimens as you go. Finding evidence of use from four years ago at the moment of filing is a needless problem.
• Police it. Rights that go unenforced can weaken.

When you find someone using your mark

The checklist covers what to gather before doing anything, how to assess whether the use actually conflicts, and the range of responses from monitoring through to formal action.

It also covers what not to do, which mostly means not sending an aggressive letter before you have established that your position is as strong as you think.

The deadline map, in plain terms

• Between the fifth and sixth year after registration, a Section 8 declaration of continued use is due, with a specimen. There is a grace period with an additional fee. Miss it entirely and the registration is cancelled.
• At the same window you may file a Section 15 declaration of incontestability if the mark has been in continuous use for five consecutive years. It is optional, and it forecloses several grounds on which the registration could later be challenged. There is rarely a good reason not to.
• Between the ninth and tenth year, and every ten years after, a combined Section 8 and Section 9 renewal is due.
• The USPTO does not send reminders you can rely on. Registrations are lost this way far more often than they are lost to disputes, and the loss is permanent in the sense that a new application starts from a new filing date, behind anyone who filed in the meantime.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if I miss a maintenance deadline?

There are limited grace periods with additional fees. Beyond those, the registration is cancelled and you would need to apply again, losing your original filing date.

Is Section 15 required?

No, it is optional. It is generally worth filing because it materially strengthens the registration.