If there is one thing that can be said for sure about the trademark registration process, it’s that the process is not short.

There are a lot of different phases that your trademark will be subject to before it’s registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. At a minimum, the trademark registration process will take around 12 months from start to finish. But the entire process can very well take over a year or even longer!

 

Although every trademark application goes through the same process, the exact timing and the outcome depends on your exact trademark and what happens with your application during the process. Generally speaking, the trademark process is broken down into about 5-6 steps depending on the filing basis:

1. Trademark application is filed.
2. Application is assigned to an Examining Attorney with the USPTO.
3. Examining Attorney reviews your application to determine if it meets all requirements.
4. Trademark is published for opposition.
5. If your application was filed on a 1(b) Intent-to-Use basis, the Examining Attorney will issue a Notice of Allowance to file the Statement of Use.
6. After one final review, your trademark will be registered (yay)!

So, let’s back it up to explain those steps. The trademark application begins with submitting the application for your mark. Specifically, you’ll submit it online at USPTO.gov and pay the associated filing fees. After it’s been submitted, you wait.

And you’re going to wait for a while.

In most cases, it will be about 6-9 months before anyone at the USPTO sets eyes on your application. So don’t fret; it’s common and in fact, expected, to not receive any correspondence or updates from the USPTO for a few months after submitting the application. So what happens when you finally do hear back?

Tune in to this week’s episode of All Up In Yo’ Business to hear more about registering your trademark. And be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more All Up In Yo’ Business! 

If you’re more of a visual person like me, you can check out the infographic of the trademark registration process here: https://www.180lawco.com/trademark-registration-process/.

Want more information on trademarks? Check out: Trademark Disclaimers and Office Actions.