Guide · Emergency
Missed your trademark renewal? Do this, in this order.
Maybe the USPTO’s courtesy email never arrived. Maybe it went to an inbox you closed in 2022. Either way: don’t panic yet — whether the mark can be saved comes down to one date.
Step 1 — Find out if you’re in the grace period (10 minutes)
Both major maintenance filings have a 6-month grace period after their due date:
- Section 8 declaration: due by the 6th anniversary of registration → grace ends 6 months later.
- Combined Section 8&9 renewal: due by the 10th anniversary (then every 10 years) → grace ends 6 months later.
Run your serial or registration number through our free deadline checker — it reads the live USPTO record and shows your exact window, or look it up manually on TSDR.
Step 2 — If the grace period has passed
Your realistic path back:
- Refile a new application for the same mark as soon as possible. You lose the original filing date and priority, and the new application goes through full examination (~8–14 months).
- Watch for squatters. Cancelled marks of active brands get picked up by opportunists — if someone files for your mark before you do, you may face an opposition fight. This is why refiling fast matters.
- Amazon sellers: a cancelled registration jeopardizes Brand Registry. See what a lapsed mark does to Brand Registry — and talk to Amazon support early rather than waiting for enforcement.
- Keep using the mark in commerce. Your common-law rights from continuous use survive and support the new application.
Step 3 — Make sure this never happens again
You’re reading this page for one of two reasons: the reminder system you relied on was a single courtesy email, or it was your own memory over a five-to-ten-year horizon. Neither is a system.
- Check your remaining marks right now — if you missed one deadline, siblings may be close behind.
- Download the free calendar file from the checker result so every future deadline is in your calendar with a 30-day alarm.
- For marks a business depends on, a $49/yr daily watch also catches the things a calendar can’t: office actions, oppositions, and status flips between deadlines.
General information, not legal advice — for a cancelled mark with real money at stake, an hour with a trademark attorney is worth it. RenewMark is not affiliated with the USPTO. Confirm everything against TSDR.