Trademark Letters of Protest: The Early Bird Gets the Worm

Consumers don’t just buy products – they buy brands. Brand loyalty means that protecting ones trademarks is vital to a successful business. If a competitor registers a mark that is confusingly similar to one of your company’s registered marks, one clear way to challenge the registration is to wait until the mark is published for opposition and then file a Notice of Opposition with the United States Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. But you can also jump into the fray earlier, before the mark is published for opposition, by sending a Letter of Protest to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The Letter of Protest is a request for the attorney reviewing the proposed mark to consider certain information, which must be provided with the Letter of Protest, when deciding whether the mark should move forward in the registration process or not. If the USPTO believes the evidence provided has merit, the evidence, but not the cover letter itself, will be provided to the reviewing attorney. Thus, it is important that a broad, factually accurate, and objectively persuasive set of evidence is provided. The Letter of Protest may raise any grounds for rejection that are available to the examining attorney. The most popular issues raised tend to be likelihood of confusion with a registered mark, descriptiveness of the proposed mark, and arguments that the proposed mark is generic.

While a Letter of Protest can be filed after a proposed mark is published for opposition, the deadline is thirty days after the proposed mark’s publication. Additionally, the standard of review for examining the evidence provided increases after the proposed mark is published. If a Letter of Protest is filed prior to publication of the proposed mark, the USPTO reviews the evidence to see if it is relevant and supports a reasonable ground for denying registration of the proposed mark. But a Letter of Protest submitted after publication of the proposed mark will be reviewed to see if the evidence supports a prima facie case for refusal, meaning a case for refusal that is self-evident. This standard of review is much higher and more difficult to meet. Thus, if you are going to file a Letter of Protest, it is important to do so early in the examination process. The attorneys at Strike Kerr & Johns have filed successful Letters of Protest on behalf of clients before. Please feel free to contact one of our attorneys if you are interested in such a filing or need other trademark assistance.

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This entry was posted on April 05, 2012.