If your trademark shows as dead in USPTO records, whether you can revive it depends on two things: why it died and how long ago. An abandoned application can usually be brought back with a Petition to Revive under 37 CFR 2.66, which costs $250 and must be filed within two months of the Notice of Abandonment.1eCFR. 37 CFR 2.66 – Revival of Applications Abandoned in Full or in Part Due to Unintentional Delay A registration cancelled for missed maintenance filings is a different story, and usually cannot be revived at all. Knowing how to revive a dead trademark starts with pulling the file and identifying exactly what went wrong.
Check TSDR First
Open the USPTO’s Trademark Status and Document Retrieval system, enter your serial or registration number, and look at the prosecution history under the Status tab. TSDR gives you real-time access to the electronic file for any U.S. trademark application or registration.2United States Patent & Trademark Office. TSDR FAQ You need three facts before you can decide what to do: the specific action you missed, the date the mark went dead, and whether the record shows the mark as an abandoned application or a cancelled registration.3United States Patent and Trademark Office. Common Status Descriptors (CSD) Icons Those two categories follow different recovery paths.
Applications most often die from a missed office action response (three months, extendable once for a fee) or, in intent-to-use cases, a missed Statement of Use deadline after the Notice of Allowance.4United States Patent and Trademark Office. Response Time Period5United States Patent and Trademark Office. Intent to Use (ITU) Forms Registrations most often die from a missed Section 8 Declaration of Continued Use, due between the fifth and sixth anniversaries of registration and again before each ten-year renewal.6United States Patent and Trademark Office. Registration Maintenance/Renewal/Correction Forms
Petition to Revive an Abandoned Application
The Petition to Revive is the standard tool when an application was abandoned because you unintentionally missed a deadline responding to an office action or Notice of Allowance. The “unintentional” standard is more forgiving than it sounds: the USPTO accepts a sworn statement to that effect unless there is specific evidence otherwise. You don’t need a catastrophe; you need an honest declaration that you didn’t mean to let the deadline pass.1eCFR. 37 CFR 2.66 – Revival of Applications Abandoned in Full or in Part Due to Unintentional Delay
The Deadlines
You must file the petition by whichever of these applies:
- Two months after the issue date of the Notice of Abandonment, or
- Two months after you actually learned the application was abandoned, if you never received the Notice, but no later than six months after the abandonment date shown in TSDR.1eCFR. 37 CFR 2.66 – Revival of Applications Abandoned in Full or in Part Due to Unintentional Delay
These are strictly enforced. Miss both, and the petition to revive is off the table.
What to Include
A complete Petition to Revive needs the $250 fee (non-refundable), a signed statement from someone with firsthand knowledge that the delay was unintentional, the response you originally missed (your office action reply, Statement of Use, or extension request), and an indication of whether you received the office action or Notice of Allowance.7United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark Fee Information1eCFR. 37 CFR 2.66 – Revival of Applications Abandoned in Full or in Part Due to Unintentional Delay If you claim non-receipt, you can’t make the same claim in any future petition on the same action.
One detail that catches filers: if the missed office action carried a three-month response period and you aren’t claiming non-receipt, you also owe the extension-of-time fee on top of the $250. The petition form lives in the USPTO’s Trademark Center.8United States Patent and Trademark Office. Reviving an Abandoned Application
Partial Abandonment
Sometimes the USPTO deletes specific goods or services from your application while keeping the rest alive. To bring the deleted items back, use the Petition to Director form and select “Revive partially abandoned goods or services” in step 3. The deadline is two months after the examiner’s amendment that deleted them, and the fee is the standard $250 rather than the higher Petition to Director fee.9United States Patent and Trademark Office. Filing a Trademark Petition Form
Reinstatement When the USPTO Made the Error
If the abandonment resulted from a USPTO mistake, you may be entitled to free reinstatement. This covers situations where you can show you actually filed your response on time, the USPTO processed a fee for your filing, or the office action was sent to the wrong correspondence address.8United States Patent and Trademark Office. Reviving an Abandoned Application
File a Request for Reinstatement form with evidence of the error, under the same deadline structure: two months from the Notice of Abandonment, or two months from discovering it (never later than six months after the abandonment date in TSDR). Important limit: not receiving an office action or Notice of Allowance that was emailed to your correct address does not count as a USPTO error. If the USPTO decides you don’t qualify for free reinstatement, it may treat your request as a petition to revive and require the $250 fee.
After Six Months: Extraordinary Circumstances
Once your application has been abandoned for more than six months, the standard Petition to Revive is unavailable. A Petition to the Director under 37 CFR 2.146 lets the Director waive certain rules “in an extraordinary situation, when justice requires and no other party is injured thereby.”10eCFR. 37 CFR 2.146 – Petitions to the Director The petition must include a statement of relevant facts explaining what extraordinary situation prevented a timely filing, a signed declaration, any supporting evidence, and the petition fee.
The USPTO itself says “revival is unlikely” past the six-month mark and suggests considering a new application instead.8United States Patent and Trademark Office. Reviving an Abandoned Application Treat this as a last resort, not a routine option.
Cancelled Registrations Usually Cannot Be Revived
If your registration was cancelled because you missed a Section 8 or Section 71 Declaration of Continued Use, the Director has no authority to bring it back. The statute gives the USPTO no discretion to waive that maintenance deadline. A petition requesting reinstatement will be denied, and the fee will not be refunded.9United States Patent and Trademark Office. Filing a Trademark Petition Form
One narrow exception: if the cancellation happened because you filed the Section 8 or 71 declaration but didn’t respond to an office action the examining attorney issued on it, you can file a Petition to the Director within two months of the Notice of Cancellation. The petition must include your response to the office action and an explanation of the extraordinary situation that prevented a timely reply.
For any other cancelled registration, federal reinstatement is not available. Your remaining federal option is a new application.
Filing a New Application Instead
When revival isn’t on the table, a fresh application is the way back to federal registration. You go through the same process as any new applicant and receive a new filing date. That later date is the biggest practical consequence.
The Priority Problem
If someone else filed for a similar mark while yours was dead, their application now has an earlier filing date than your new one, and it could block your registration entirely. Run a thorough clearance search in the USPTO’s trademark database before spending money on a new filing to see whether anyone moved into your space during the gap.
Current Fees
As of 2026, the base filing fee is $350 per class of goods or services when you use standardized descriptions from the USPTO’s Trademark ID Manual. A custom description adds a $200 per-class surcharge, so an effective $550 per class.11United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule Each class of goods or services carries its own fee.
Common-Law Rights Still Exist
Losing federal registration does not erase all your trademark rights. If you’ve continuously used the mark in commerce, you retain common-law rights in the geographic areas where customers associate the mark with your goods or services. Those rights exist independently of any USPTO filing. They won’t give you the nationwide presumption of ownership that federal registration provides, but they can stop competitors in markets where you’ve built a reputation. Continuous use puts you in a stronger position than someone starting from scratch.
Where to File
All trademark filings go through the USPTO’s Trademark Center, including new applications and petition forms for revival and reinstatement.12United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark Center Updates and Training You’ll need a verified USPTO.gov account to log in. After you submit and pay by credit card or electronic funds transfer, the system generates a confirmation page and emails a receipt. Save it. If a deadline dispute ever comes up, that timestamp is your evidence.