What your trademark status actually means.

Your application has been received by the USPTO and assigned a serial number. It is in the queue waiting for formal review. Nothing for you to do yet; this is the normal starting status.

Your application meets the minimum filing requirements but has not yet been assigned to an examining attorney. This is the standard status for the first several months after filing.

An examining attorney has been assigned to your application and will begin reviewing it against the register and the law. The first substantive response, if any, will come as an office action.

An examining attorney reviewed your application and found a legal issue, such as a likelihood of confusion with another mark or a description of goods that needs clarification. You have 3 months to respond, with one 3-month extension available for a USPTO fee. Miss it and the application is abandoned.

The examiner considered your response and maintained the refusal. 'Final' sounds absolute, but it is not: you still have a request for reconsideration, an appeal to the TTAB, or a strategic refiling. The same 3-month deadline clock applies.

Your response has been submitted and is waiting for the examiner to review it. This can take several months. No action needed from you while it is pending.

Your application is on hold, usually because the examiner is waiting on the outcome of an earlier-filed application that may conflict with yours. It is not refused, just paused. If you are unsure why or how long, I can look into it.

The examining attorney approved your mark. It will now be published in the Trademark Official Gazette for a 30-day opposition period. No action needed unless someone opposes.

Your mark is live in the Official Gazette for 30 days. Any third party who believes they would be harmed by your registration can file an opposition during this window. If no one does, the mark moves forward.

A third party has filed an opposition against your mark before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. This is real litigation and needs a strategy, not a form response.

A third party was granted extra time to decide whether to oppose your mark. It does not mean they will, only that they bought time. If an opposition follows, you will want counsel in place before it lands.

You filed an Intent-to-Use application and your mark survived publication. This is not a registration yet. You have 6 months from the Notice of Allowance to file a Statement of Use proving you are using the mark in commerce, with up to five 6-month extensions available at $125 per class each.

Your Statement of Use has been submitted and is awaiting examiner review. If the specimens are accepted, your mark moves to registration. If the specimens are refused, you will receive an office action to fix them.

You requested more time to file your Statement of Use and it was granted. You now have additional time to show use of the mark in commerce. Each extension is 6 months and costs $125 per class, up to three years total.

Your trademark is officially registered with the USPTO. You can now use the ® symbol and have exclusive federal rights for the goods and services listed. The next deadline is your Section 8 declaration between years 5 and 6.

Your years 5–6 maintenance declaration was accepted. Your registration remains live. The next milestone is the combined Section 8 and 9 renewal between years 9 and 10.

You missed the original maintenance deadline but are inside the 6-month grace period. You can still save the registration by filing with an extra USPTO fee of $100 per class. Miss the grace period and the registration is cancelled.

Your application is no longer active, usually because a deadline was missed. If the abandonment was recent and unintentional, a petition to revive costs $250 and must be filed within two months of the abandonment date. After that window, you are starting over with a new application and a new filing fee.

Your registration was cancelled, typically because a maintenance deadline and its grace period were missed. A cancelled registration cannot be revived; the only path back is a new application, if the name is still available. Send me your registration number and I will tell you exactly where things stand.