A trademark cancellation is a legal challenge to the continued registration of a particular trademark. A trademark cancellation is started off by electronically filing a petition for cancellation with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) through the TTAB Center and paying the required fee. In most cases, a petition for cancellation of a trademark registration on the Principal Register must be filed within five years of the date that the registration issued. However, there are some limited circumstances under which a registration on the Principal Register may be canceled at any time. Conversely, a trademark registration on the Supplemental Register can be canceled at any time.
There are a few thousand trademark cancellations filed every year, which is really only a tiny fraction of the number of trademark registrations that are granted every year by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).