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[Morris] Hi, I'm trademark attorney Morris Turek.
I protect individuals and businesses throughout the world by assisting them with their important trademark matters.
One question people often ask is
how long does a federal trademark registration last?
Well, a federal trademark registration must be maintained and renewed periodically
in order to keep it from being canceled by the trademark office.
The good news is that preventing your trademark registration from being canceled
is not a very difficult or time consuming thing to do.
Between the 5th and the 6th year of registration
you must file what is called the Section 8 Declaration of Continued Use.
The Section 8 Declaration requires that you submit a sworn statement
that your trademark is still in use in commerce
as well as a current specimen showing actual use of your trademark.
If you forget to file the Section 8 Declaration,
your trademark registration will be canceled,
and you will lose all of the benefits and protections of federal registration.
Assuming you remembered to file the Section 8 Declaration,
the next step is to renew your trademark registration between the 9th and 10th year of registration.
This requires that you file another Section 8 Declaration of Continued Use
as well as a Section 9 Application for Renewal.
You also have to submit a current specimen showing actual use of your trademark in commerce.
Assuming you submitted all of the required documents during the first 10 years,
your trademark registration need only be renewed every subsequent 10 years to keep it from expiring.
Of course, it is essential that all of these documents be prepared correctly and filed by the deadlines.
You may want to consider hiring a trademark attorney to ensure that the validity of your trademark registration
is not jeopardized by mistakes or errors you may inadvertently make
when maintaining and renewing your registration.
If you would like to learn more about how to prevent your trademark registration from being canceled,
please feel free to give me a call.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
[Morris Turek, Trademark Attorney] [(314) 749-4059, morris@yourtrademarkattorney.com]