You’ve invested time and money into your trademark application, only to discover it’s been abandoned. Maybe you missed a deadline, or life got in the way of responding to the USPTO on time. The good news? An abandoned application doesn’t always mean the end of the road. In many cases, you can revive your application and continue pursuing your trademark registration—but you need to act quickly and follow the right steps.
This guide walks you through the most common reasons trademark applications get abandoned and explains exactly what you need to do to bring yours back to life.
When your trademark application is abandoned, it essentially becomes inactive. It can no longer progress toward becoming a registered trademark. The USPTO will send you a Notice of Abandonment, but you can also check your application status anytime through the Trademark Status and Document Retrieval (TSDR) system.
Abandonment typically happens when applicants miss critical deadlines—something that’s easier to do than you might think when you’re juggling all the demands of running a business.
Yes, in most cases. The USPTO allows you to file a petition to revive your application, but there are strict deadlines and specific requirements depending on why your application was abandoned in the first place.
An office action is the USPTO’s way of raising questions or concerns about your application. You typically have six months to respond, and missing that deadline is one of the most common reasons applications get abandoned.
What You Need to File:
Use the Petition to Revive Abandoned Application – Failure to Respond Timely to Office Action form. You must file within two months of the Notice of Abandonment date. If you never received the notice, you have two months from when you discovered the abandonment—but no more than six months from the actual abandonment date shown in TSDR.
Your petition must include:
Important Note: You can only claim you didn’t receive a particular office action once. If you miss the same deadline again, you’ll need to start over with a new application.
If you filed your application based on “intent-to-use” (meaning you plan to use the trademark but aren’t using it yet), you’ll eventually need to file a Statement of Use proving you’re actually using the mark in commerce. After the USPTO issues your Notice of Allowance, you have six months to file this statement—or you can request extensions.
The Timeline:
What You Need to File:
Use the Petition to Revive Abandoned Application – Failure to File Timely Statement of Use or Extension Request form. The same two-month deadline applies from your Notice of Abandonment.
Your petition must include:
Special Circumstance: If your application has multiple filing bases (for example, both intent-to-use and already-in-use), you can use the Petition to Revive with Request to Delete Section 1(b) Basis form instead. This allows you to drop the intent-to-use portion and proceed with the goods or services you’re already using.
The USPTO will review your petition and send you one of these possible responses:
Great news! Your application is revived, and the examination process continues from where it left off. You’re back on track toward registration.
The USPTO will send you a Deficiency Letter explaining what’s missing and when you need to respond. Use the Response to Petition to Revive Deficiency Letter form to submit the missing information.
If this happens, you have one more option: request reconsideration. You must file within two months of the denial using the Petition to Director form. In the form, select “Other” and specify “review denial of a petition to revive.”
Your reconsideration request needs:
If reconsideration is also denied, you’ll need to start fresh with a new trademark application and pay all filing fees again.
While we’re discussing the revival process, it’s worth noting that many applicants face office actions (and potential abandonment) because of issues that could have been caught earlier with thorough trademark research.
Before filing any trademark application—whether it’s your first time or you’re starting over after abandonment—make sure comprehensive research has been done. This means:
Whether you’re working with a trademark services provider or an attorney, ensuring this level of research is done upfront can help you avoid costly office actions and the risk of abandonment down the line.
An abandoned trademark application isn’t necessarily the end of your brand protection journey—but time is of the essence. With strict two-month deadlines and specific requirements depending on your situation, knowing what forms to file and what information to include can make the difference between reviving your application and having to start from scratch.
The key is to act quickly, provide complete information, and understand exactly what the USPTO needs from you. And if you’re filing a new application after abandonment, investing in comprehensive trademark research upfront can help you avoid repeating the same challenges.
Ready to get your trademark protection back on track? TradeMark Express provides comprehensive trademark research to help you understand potential conflicts before you file. We’ll help ensure your application is built on a solid foundation, and if you need legal guidance along the way, we can connect you with experienced trademark attorneys from our referral network. Order a comprehensive trademark search today and move forward with confidence.
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