Trademark Application

The Section 44(d) trademark filing basis is applicable to certain trademark applications filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).  Most of the time, trademark applications are filed under with Section 1(a) (use in commerce) or Section 1(b) (intent to use).  However, Section 44(d) allows the owner of a foreign trademark application to rely on its foreign application to secure a priority filing date in the United States.  What does this mean?  Well, it means that the owner’s USPTO trademark application filing date will be considered to be the date on which the foreign trademark application was filed.

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What does it mean to amend a trademark application?  Simply put, it means changing or altering the application in some manner after it’s filed.  The way to amend a trademark application is by filing an amendment with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).  Oftentimes, there are no government fees associated with filing an amendment, but you could still waste a lot of time and effort requesting an amendment that violates the USPTO’s rules and regulations.  So, it’s important to understand which kinds of amendments are allowable, when they can be filed, and how to properly file them with the USPTO.

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If your trademark application has gone abandoned because you unintentionally failed to timely file the Statement of Use, an Extension of Time, a response to a trademark office action, or a response to a suspension inquiry, you may be able to revive your abandoned trademark application by filing a Petition to Revive.

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Filing an intent to use trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) under Section 1(b) may be a good option if your trademark is not yet in use in commerce.  It’s essentially a way to reserve your right to use a name, logo, or slogan in connection with the advertising and sale of specific products/services.  Assuming your intent to use trademark application eventually becomes a trademark registration, all of your rights will date back to the filing date of the application.  In other words, filing an intent to use trademark application prevents others from potentially acquiring common law trademark rights in a similar name while your trademark application is going through the trademark application process.

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If you’ve ever attempted to register a trademark, you already know that the USPTO trademark application form requires you to identify the trademark class into which your product or service falls.  Most people look at the portion of the form that asks for the class and, not surprisingly, have no idea what that even means.  Well, the good news is that the classification system is not really all that difficult to understand once you know how to navigate it.

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