Trademark Renewal Guide: Keeping Your Registration Alive

Trademark registration is not a one-time achievement — it is the beginning of an ongoing stewardship obligation. The USPTO does not automatically renew your trademark. If you miss the required maintenance filings, your registration will be cancelled, and years of work and investment in building your brand’s legal foundation will be lost. Understanding trademark renewal requirements — and managing them proactively — is as fundamental to brand ownership as the original registration itself.

Understanding the USPTO Trademark Maintenance Schedule

Unlike many countries where trademark registrations are renewed on a simple periodic schedule, the U.S. trademark system has a more nuanced maintenance structure — one that requires multiple different filings at different points in the registration lifecycle. Missing any of these filings has serious consequences.

The USPTO requires the following post-registration filings: a Section 8 Declaration of Continued Use (or Excusable Nonuse) between years 5 and 6; a combined Section 8 and 9 Renewal application between years 9 and 10; and subsequent Section 9 renewals combined with Section 8 declarations every 10 years thereafter. Each of these filings carries both a required fee and a substantive requirement — a specimen demonstrating current use in commerce for each class of goods or services listed in the registration.

Section 8 Declaration: The Five-Year Checkpoint

The Section 8 Declaration of Continued Use is the first major post-registration hurdle. It must be filed between the 5th and 6th year after the date of registration, with a 6-month grace period available for an additional surcharge. The declaration is a sworn statement — signed under penalty of cancellation of the registration — affirming that the mark is in current use in commerce for the goods/services identified in the registration.

If the mark is not currently in use for all listed goods/services, the declaration must either delete the goods/services for which use has been abandoned or claim excusable nonuse for those items. Excusable nonuse is a narrow exception for situations where use has been interrupted for reasons beyond the trademark owner control — a government-imposed supply embargo, for example, or a temporary business interruption. It is not available simply because a product line has been discontinued for business reasons.

Specimen Requirements for Section 8 Filings

The specimen requirement is where many Section 8 filings run into trouble. The specimen must show the mark as currently used in commerce — not a specimen from five years ago, not a mock-up of how you plan to use it, but an actual, current example of use. For goods, acceptable specimens include product labels, packaging, hang tags, and container labels. For services, acceptable specimens include screenshots of websites that feature the mark prominently in connection with the service offerings, brochures, and advertising materials.

The USPTO has significantly tightened specimen scrutiny in recent years. Following a 2017 audit that found widespread fraudulent specimen submissions — including digitally manipulated images — the agency implemented new examination protocols including image analysis technology. Submitting an inaccurate or misleading specimen is a federal violation with serious consequences, including cancellation of the registration. Authentic specimens collected through systematic archiving practices are not just better legally — they are the only acceptable approach.

Section 15 Declaration of Incontestability: An Optional but Powerful Filing

The Section 15 Declaration of Incontestability is not required for renewal — but it is arguably the most strategically valuable optional filing in the USPTO trademark system. A mark becomes eligible for incontestability after five consecutive years of continuous use in commerce following registration. Filing this declaration narrows the grounds on which third parties can challenge your mark validity in legal proceedings.

An incontestable mark cannot be challenged on the grounds that it is merely descriptive or that it has not acquired secondary meaning — two of the most common bases for invalidating a trademark. The registration is effectively insulated from these challenges. The only grounds remaining for challenging an incontestable mark include fraud in procuring the registration, abandonment of the mark, and misrepresentation of source — a much narrower set of vulnerabilities. Filing the Section 15 declaration as soon as you are eligible — immediately upon the 5-year anniversary of registration — is almost always the right strategic choice.

The Ten-Year Renewal: Section 8 and 9 Combined Filing

USPTO Trademark Renewal Fees

Trademark maintenance fees have increased in recent years as the USPTO adjusted its fee schedule to achieve more complete cost recovery. As of April 2025, the current USPTO maintenance fee schedule is: Section 8 Declaration — $225 per class; Section 8 and 9 combined renewal — $325 per class; grace period surcharge — $100 per class for filings during the 6-month grace period after the deadline; Section 15 Declaration — $200 per class. Attorney fees for preparing and filing these documents typically range from $300 to $800 per class depending on the complexity of the goods/services description and any specimen issues that arise.

For registrations covering multiple classes, these fees multiply accordingly. A registration covering 5 international classes faces renewal fees of approximately $1,625 in USPTO fees alone (plus attorney fees) at the 10-year mark — a meaningful budgetary item that should be anticipated and planned for well in advance. For detailed guidance on managing multi-class renewal costs, visit the PerspireIP blog.

International Trademark Renewal Requirements

International trademark registrations have their own renewal schedules that differ from the U.S. system. Madrid System international registrations are renewed every 10 years through a single filing with WIPO, which is administratively simpler than managing separate national renewals. European Union Trade Marks (EUTMs) are renewed every 10 years through the EUIPO. UK trademark registrations are renewed every 10 years through the UKIPO.

Canada’s trademark regime is notably different: trademarks registered before June 17, 2019 had a 15-year renewal term; registrations granted after that date are subject to a 10-year renewal cycle. Some African jurisdictions have 7-year renewal terms. This variation means that international portfolio management requires jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction deadline tracking — a systematic docketing system is not optional for brands with global registrations.

What Happens When You Miss a Trademark Renewal Deadline?

Missing a renewal deadline without filing during the grace period results in cancellation of the registration. For USPTO registrations, the cancellation is recorded in the trademark database, and the mark is made available for others to register. Unlike abandoned applications, which can sometimes be revived through a petition process, cancelled registrations due to missed maintenance filings cannot be revived — the only remedy is to file a new application, which loses the original registration date and potentially loses priority to third parties who filed in the interim.

The commercial consequences of losing a registration can be severe. If you had incontestability status, it is gone. Your priority date is gone. Any cease-and-desist letters you send to infringers citing the registration are undermined. If you were in the middle of an enforcement action relying on the registration, the cancellation weakens your position. The absolute best defense against these consequences is systematic docketing with well-established advance reminder periods.

Frequently Asked Questions About Trademark Renewal

Does the USPTO notify me when my trademark renewal is due?

The USPTO does provide courtesy reminder notices approximately one year before maintenance deadlines, but these reminders are not guaranteed and are sent to the correspondence address on file — which may be outdated if you have changed addresses or outside counsel. The USPTO explicitly states that failure to receive a courtesy notice does not excuse failure to file. You are solely responsible for tracking and meeting your renewal deadlines regardless of whether you receive any reminder from the USPTO.

Can I renew a trademark registration early?

Yes. The USPTO accepts combined Section 8 and 9 renewal filings during the filing window, which opens one year before the renewal deadline. Early filing ensures you have adequate time to collect specimens, address any USPTO office actions, and resolve issues before the deadline passes. Filing early is a best practice for any brand that takes trademark maintenance seriously.

What is an acceptable specimen for a trademark renewal?

For goods, acceptable specimens include current product labels, packaging, hang tags, and container images that show the mark as used in the sale of the goods. For services, acceptable specimens include screenshots of websites that feature the mark in connection with the services (including the URL and date), brochures, advertisements, and signage. The specimen must be current — showing use as of the filing date of the renewal — and must not be digitally altered or manipulated.

What happens if I stop using my trademark before the renewal is due?

Abandonment of use for three consecutive years creates a rebuttable presumption of intent to abandon the trademark. If you have stopped using the mark and cannot establish excusable nonuse, you should not file a Section 8 declaration falsely claiming continued use — doing so is fraud on the USPTO and can result in cancellation of the registration and other legal consequences. If nonuse is genuinely temporary and excusable, you may claim excusable nonuse in the declaration, but you must be able to substantiate that claim.

Can I renew a trademark I am no longer using if I plan to start using it again?

This requires careful legal analysis. If you have ceased use without excusable justification, renewing the registration may not be legally permissible, and misrepresenting continued use in a Section 8 declaration is fraud. If there is a genuine business reason for the gap in use and you have concrete plans to resume use, discussing the situation with a trademark attorney before filing any maintenance document is essential.

Never Let Your Trademark Registration Expire

Trademark renewal is not the exciting part of brand ownership — but it is among the most consequential. The brands that maintain strong, active trademark portfolios decade after decade are those that treat renewal and maintenance as a priority, not an afterthought. PerspireIP provides comprehensive trademark maintenance services including deadline docketing, specimen collection guidance, renewal filing preparation, and proactive portfolio reviews. Contact our team today to ensure your trademark registrations remain secure for years to come.