Trademarks administrative sanctions process

Published on: 01/04/2022 15:24 PM

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Trademark Alert
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Trademarks administrative sanctions process

As part of our continuing efforts to protect the integrity of the U.S. trademark register, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has established an administrative process to investigate improper trademark-related submissions. Under this process, when a submission appears to violate the Trademark Rules of Practice or the USPTO website’s Terms of Use, the USPTO will issue administrative orders that may result in sanctions being imposed. Sanctions may include:

  • Striking submissions
  • Precluding parties from appearing before the USPTO
  • Terminating USPTO.gov accounts
  • Terminating proceedings

We’ve posted a Federal Register Notice announcing that documents associated with the sanctions process for a particular application or registration, including any administrative orders, will appear in the electronic file record and will be viewable by the public in the Trademark Status and Document Retrieval system.

You may submit comments regarding this process to TMFRNotices@uspto.gov. The comment period is open through February 4, 2022.

The USPTO has dedicated extensive resources to fight trademark fraud. Read our recent blog on our comprehensive efforts to protect trademark owners, applicants, and the U.S. trademark register.