A federal trademark registration in the United States lasts ten years from the date the USPTO registers the mark, and you can renew it for additional ten-year periods with no limit on how many times you renew.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1058 – Duration, Affidavits and Fees The catch is that the registration only survives if you file the right paperwork at two points inside each ten-year cycle. Miss those, and the mark dies.
What the Ten-Year Term Actually Gives You
The clock starts on the registration date, not the application filing date. During those ten years, you hold a nationwide presumption of ownership and the exclusive right to use the mark with the goods or services listed in the registration. That right lets you stop competitors from using confusingly similar marks anywhere in the country.
Ten years is the outer boundary of a single term. Inside it sit two mandatory checkpoints, and each one is designed to prove you haven’t quietly abandoned the mark.
The Year-Five Filing (Section 8)
Between the fifth and sixth anniversaries of registration, you must file a Declaration of Use, often called a Section 8 declaration.2United States Patent and Trademark Office. Keeping Your Registration Alive This is the deadline most new owners don’t see coming, and skipping it is one of the most common reasons registrations die before their first renewal.
The filing has three parts: a sworn statement that you’re still using the mark in commerce for the listed goods or services, a specimen showing real-world use such as product labels, packaging, or website screenshots, and the filing fee.3United States Patent and Trademark Office. Definitions for Maintaining a Trademark Registration Everything is charged per class, so a registration covering three classes needs three specimens and three fees.
The Ten-Year Renewal (Sections 8 and 9)
Between the ninth and tenth anniversaries, you file a combined Declaration of Use and Application for Renewal, covering both Section 8 and Section 9 of the Trademark Act.4United States Patent and Trademark Office. Maintaining Your Federal Registration This is the filing that resets the ten-year clock. Every renewal after that follows the same pattern: file the combined declaration and renewal in the ninth-to-tenth-year window of each new term, and repeat indefinitely.
The proof of use looks the same as at year five, plus a separate renewal application and fee for each class.5United States Patent and Trademark Office. Combined Declaration of Use of Mark in Commerce and Application for Renewal of Registration of a Mark Under Sections 8 and 9
Laid out end to end, the maintenance schedule for a mark registered in 2026 looks like this:
- 2031–2032: File the Section 8 Declaration of Use
- 2035–2036: File the combined Section 8 and Section 9 renewal
- 2045–2046: File the next combined Section 8 and Section 9 renewal
- Every ten years after that: Same combined filing, same window
What It Costs
All USPTO trademark fees are charged per class of goods or services. The current electronic filing fees are:6United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule
- Section 8 Declaration of Use: $325 per class
- Section 9 Renewal Application: $325 per class
- Grace period surcharge (Section 8): $100 per class
- Grace period surcharge (Section 9): $100 per class
The combined Section 8 and Section 9 filing at the ten-year mark comes to $650 per class if you file on time. Paper filings cost more ($425 for Section 8 and $525 for Section 9), so electronic filing through TEAS is worth the effort.
Grace Periods and Missed Deadlines
If you miss the one-year filing window at either checkpoint, the USPTO gives you a six-month grace period. The tradeoff is the $100-per-class surcharge on top of the standard fee.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1058 – Duration, Affidavits and Fees7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1059 – Renewal of Registration Miss the grace period as well and the registration is cancelled automatically. There is no petition to revive it the way you can sometimes revive an abandoned application.2United States Patent and Trademark Office. Keeping Your Registration Alive
Cancellation strips away every benefit federal registration provided: the nationwide presumption of ownership, the ability to sue in federal court under the Lanham Act, and your listing in the USPTO database that warns off other applicants. Competitors may begin using similar marks, and someone else could apply to register the very mark you lost. Getting it back means starting over with a new application, new fees, and a fresh examination. If another party adopted a similar mark during the gap, their rights could block your new application entirely.
Cancellation does not necessarily destroy your common law trademark rights. If you’ve been continuously using the mark in a particular geographic area, you may still have enforceable rights in that region under state common law. Those rights are much narrower than federal registration and limited to the territory where you’ve actually built recognition, so they’re a poor substitute for keeping the registration alive.
If You’ve Temporarily Stopped Using the Mark
The year-five and ten-year deadlines don’t disappear just because you’ve paused sales. If you’ve stopped using your trademark for reasons outside your control, you can file a Declaration of Excusable Non-Use in place of a standard Declaration of Use. You’ll need to show that the non-use results from special circumstances and that you haven’t abandoned the mark. Recognized examples include government trade embargoes, natural disasters, fires, serious illness, or the time needed to retool manufacturing after a business acquisition. A voluntary decision to stop selling a product doesn’t qualify.
If You Don’t Want to Keep the Registration
If you’ve stopped using a mark and don’t plan to bring it back, you can proactively surrender the registration rather than letting it lapse. The USPTO provides a Surrender of Registration for Cancellation form, which requires a signed statement from the owner saying whether the whole registration or only specific classes are being given up.8United States Patent and Trademark Office. Surrender of Registration for Cancellation Foreign-domiciled owners must file through a U.S.-licensed attorney. Surrendering closes the record cleanly and stops the maintenance fees from accumulating on a mark you no longer need.