The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board is the administrative tribunal inside the USPTO that decides disputes over registrations. It is often a faster, lower-cost way to protect your marks than going straight to court. We handle oppositions, cancellations, defenses, and appeals, building the evidence and motion practice these proceedings turn on.
Filing an Opposition
When someone applies to register a mark that threatens yours, you have a window to oppose it before it registers. We file oppositions and develop the evidence the Board wants to see, whether the ground is likelihood of confusion, dilution, or another basis for refusal. We move the case through discovery, motion practice, and trial to keep the conflicting mark off the register.
Seeking a Cancellation
Some registrations should never have issued, and others have gone stale. We file cancellation petitions against marks that are confusingly similar to yours, generic, abandoned, or obtained by fraud. Cancelling a bad registration clears the path for your own application and removes a registration the other side could otherwise use as a weapon against your brand.
Defending Your Marks
If your application or registration draws an opposition or cancellation, we defend it. We work out the strongest defenses for your situation, run discovery to get the facts you need, and present evidence that supports your priority and your right to the mark. Our aim is to keep your registration intact and your brand free to operate the way you planned.
Taking It Up on Appeal
When an examining attorney refuses your application or a TTAB decision goes against you, the fight is not necessarily over. We handle appeals to the Federal Circuit or, where the rules allow, to a federal district court. We assess whether an appeal is worth pursuing and frame the legal arguments to give you a real shot at reversing the result.