Your trademark is registered. Here’s what you still owe the USPTO.

A federal trademark registration is not a deed. It is a subscription with proof-of-use requirements, and the USPTO will cancel it if you stop paying attention.

There are three filings to know: a Section 8 declaration, a Section 9 renewal, and an optional Section 15 declaration that makes your registration considerably harder to attack. Two of them are mandatory and permanently unforgiving. Here are the windows.

Section 8: prove you are still using it

Under 15 U.S.C. § 1058, your registration "shall be canceled by the Director" unless you file a declaration of continued use on schedule.

First filing. The statute sets the window as "within the 1-year period immediately preceding the expiration of 6 years following the date of registration." The USPTO says it in the friendlier version: "Between the fifth and sixth years after the registration date File a Declaration of Use and/or Excusable Nonuse under section 8."

Every filing after that. "Within the 1-year period immediately preceding the expiration of 10 years following the date of registration, and each successive 10-year period." So years 9–10, years 19–20, years 29–30, and onward.

A Section 8 declaration is a sworn statement that the mark is in use in commerce for the goods and services listed in the registration — plus a specimen. The statute requires the declaration be accompanied by "such number of specimens or facsimiles showing current use of the mark in commerce as may be required by the Director."

If you are not currently using the mark, there is a narrow alternative: a claim of excusable nonuse. That means, in the USPTO's framing, nonuse "due to special circumstances that excuse nonuse," and it requires stating the date of last use and the steps you are taking to resume. It is not a box you check because sales were slow.

Section 9: the ten-year renewal

Section 8 keeps the registration alive. Section 9 renews the term.

Under 15 U.S.C. § 1059, "each registration may be renewed for periods of 10 years at the end of each successive 10-year period," and the application to renew "may be made at any time within 1 year before the end of each successive 10-year period."

In practice these two filings travel together. The USPTO instructs: "Between the ninth and 10th years after the registration date File the first Declaration of Use and/or Excusable Nonuse and an Application for Renewal under sections 8 and 9," and then "Every 10 years after that (between the 19th and 20th years, 29th and 30th years, etc.)."

Two mandatory filings, two windows: one at years 5–6, then a combined filing every tenth year.

The six-month grace period — and its limits

Both statutes give you a cushion. Section 8 allows filing within "the 6-month grace period immediately following the expiration of the periods established," with the fee "and the additional grace period surcharge prescribed by the Director." Section 9 mirrors it: renewal "may be made within a grace period of 6 months after the end of each successive 10-year period, upon payment of a fee and surcharge."

The USPTO's guidance is direct: "There is a six-month grace period after each of the above deadlines. You can file during the grace period, but you'll need to pay an additional fee."

Do not treat the grace period as an extension of the deadline. It is a late window with a penalty, and it is the last one you get.

What happens if you miss it

There is no soft landing here, and this is the single most important paragraph in this article.

If you do not file before the grace period closes, the USPTO states that "your registration will be canceled or will expire." And on the post-registration timeline: "If you don't file these documents by the deadlines, your registration will expire or be canceled and cannot be reinstated. Your only option is to file a new application."

Not revived. Not reinstated. Refiled — with a new filing date, a fresh examination, and exposure to every mark that has entered the register since you first filed. Whatever priority your original registration carried is gone.

Section 15: the optional filing that changes your leverage

Section 15 is not required. It is often the highest-value thing you can file.

Under 15 U.S.C. § 1065, a registration can become incontestable where the mark "has been in continuous use for five consecutive years subsequent to the date of such registration and is still in use in commerce." The statute conditions that on four things: no final decision adverse to your ownership or right to register; no proceeding involving those rights pending at the USPTO or in court and not finally disposed of; an affidavit filed with the Director "within one year after the expiration of any such five-year period"; and the mark is not generic — "no incontestable right shall be acquired in a mark which is the generic name for the goods or services."

Note the timing precisely. TMEP 1605.03 states an owner "may not file a §15 affidavit or declaration until the federally registered mark has been in continuous use in commerce for at least five consecutive years after the date of registration," and under 37 C.F.R. § 2.167(f) it "may be filed within one year after the five-year period that is selected." File early and, per the TMEP, the USPTO "will not review it and will refund the filing fee." Because any qualifying five-year period works, this is commonly filed alongside the Section 8 at

years 5–6 — but the Section 8 deadline and the Section 15 opportunity are separate things.

What it buys you. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1115(b), an incontestable registration is "conclusive evidence of the validity of the registered mark and of the registration of the mark, of the registrant's ownership of the mark, and of the registrant's exclusive right to use the registered mark in commerce." Critically, a challenger can no longer argue your mark is merely descriptive.

What it does not buy you. Section 1115(b) preserves a list of defenses: fraud in obtaining the registration, abandonment, use of the mark to misrepresent source, descriptive fair use, prior use by another party, functionality, antitrust misuse, and equitable defenses like laches, estoppel, and acquiescence. Incontestable is a term of art, not a shield.

And Section 15 is voluntary in both directions. Per TMEP 1605, a registrant "may choose to claim the benefits of incontestability... or may elect to retain the registration without those benefits," and "the requirements for maintaining and renewing a federal registration are not affected."

The audit: the USPTO may ask you to prove more than you filed

Filing a Section 8 does not end the inquiry. The USPTO runs a post-registration audit program.

Random selection reaches registrations with a timely Section 8 or 71 declaration where at least one class lists "four or more goods or services," or at least two classes list two or more each. Directed audits target registrations with signals of questionable use — the USPTO cites specimens that appear "digitally altered" or that trace to specimen farms.

If audited, you will be asked for proof of use for "two additional goods or services for each audited class" in a random audit; a directed audit may reach everything listed.

The stakes are not proportional to the ask. Fail to respond and, per the USPTO, "your registration will be canceled in its entirety." Respond but cannot prove use across the identification, and you must "delete all goods or services for which you cannot provide proof of use," with a per-class deletion fee and possible deficiency surcharge.

The lesson runs backward into your filing strategy: an identification padded with goods you never sold is a liability that surfaces years later.

Why an unused registration is exposed from outside, too

Third parties have tools now. Under the Trademark Modernization Act, anyone can petition for expungement — that the mark was never used in commerce — filed "between three and 10 years after the registration date," or for reexamination — that the mark was not in use by the relevant date — "within the first five years after registration." If a request succeeds, the USPTO will "delete those goods or services from the registration," and "in some cases, we will cancel the registration."

Separately, 15 U.S.C. § 1064 allows cancellation "at any time after the 3-year period following the date of registration, if the registered mark has never been used in commerce," alongside the perennial grounds of genericness, abandonment, functionality, and fraud.

Put it on a calendar you actually keep

Registration date plus five years. Plus nine. Plus nineteen. Then every ten years.

Keep dated specimens as you go — packaging photos, screenshots with visible URLs and dates, labels — so that a Section 8 or an audit response is a retrieval task rather than an archaeology project. And keep the identification honest to what you actually sell. Every filing above is easier when it is true.

This article is general information about USPTO procedure, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines and fees change; confirm current requirements with the USPTO or counsel before relying on them.

Sources:15 U.S.C. § 1058 (Cornell LII) · 15 U.S.C. § 1059 (Cornell LII) · 15 U.S.C. § 1064 (Cornell LII) · 15 U.S.C. § 1065 (Cornell LII) · 15 U.S.C. § 1115 (Cornell LII) · USPTO — Keeping your registration alive · USPTO — Post-registration timeline · USPTO — Definitions for maintaining a trademark registration · USPTO — Post-registration audit program · USPTO — Requesting an expungement or reexamination proceeding · TMEP § 1605 (April 2014 archive)