Seattle Trademark Lawyer

Once in a while, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will issue a suspension letter to a trademark owner that has applied for federal registration.

This usually isn’t a good thing. But it’s not necessarily a bad thing, either.

All the PTO does with a suspension letter is preserve the applicants’ respective places in line. Because while the first to use a trademark generally gets better trademark rights than later users, the PTO reviews each application in the order in which they are filed.

So if I apply to register BRAND X in connection with shoes, and you apply to register BRAND X in connection with socks, the PTO might properly issue a suspension letter to you. Its doing so would simply be telling you that it needs to see if my application is going to mature into a registration. If it does, it might very well block yours on grounds of likelihood of confusion. But if I abandon my application, or for some reason it is denied, it need not stand in your way.

This first-first in, first-reviewed scheme suggests two strategies. First, when searching the PTO’s database, you need to pay attention not only to prior registrations that could block your application, but also prior-filed applications.

Second, if you’re going to file, don’t delay. Preserve your place in line by getting your application on file. If you sit on the sidelines, you risk someone getting their application in the pipeline ahead of you. And if their application is registered, it may block yours. So don’t delay!