NEW! USPTO Courtesy Reminders for Post-Registration Maintenance Deadlines

On January 27, 2015, the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") announced that it would begin sending courtesy email reminders of upcoming post-registration maintenance filing deadlines (e.g., Section 8 use affidavits and Section 9 renewals) directly to registration owners and/or their attorneys who have (1) "live" registrations on the date of sending; (2) provided a valid email address to the USPTO; and (3) authorized email communication. No reminders will be sent by regular mail, and no follow-up emails will be attempted for undeliverable emails.

The courtesy email reminders will be sent on the first day of the statutory filing period for the maintenance filing (which is generally a year prior to the deadline). The emails will be sent to all email addresses of record within the Correspondence and Current Owner(s) Information fields, as indicated in USPTO records, even if email was only authorized for one of the fields. For example, if email was authorized in the Correspondence Information field but not in the Current Owner(s) Information field, the reminders will be sent to email addresses in both the Correspondence and Current Owner(s) Information fields.

The email reminders will identify the registered mark, corresponding serial and registration numbers, the date of registration, and the owner(s) of record in the USPTO's trademark database. The reminders will also identify the maintenance filing currently due, along with the anniversary filing deadline, the grace period deadline, and the filing fee per class. The emails will also provide links to the USPTO website for general information on registration maintenance requirements, as well as direct links to Trademark Electronic Application System ("TEAS"), the Trademark Status & Document Retrieval ("TSDR") database, and the Electronic Trademark Assignment System ("ETAS").