The Coronavirus pandemic has turned life upside down for most of the world, and has been especially difficult for small businesses and nonprofits. However, this hasn’t completely eliminated legal obligations and deadlines. I have said before, and I will say it again, I firmly believe that we will get through this. Many small businesses and nonprofits will find ways to pick back up and re-open their doors. Many of you have already found creative ways to transition to online sales. Small businesses and nonprofits are an essential part of the economy, and that will still be true on the other side of this pandemic. 

One of the many legal obligations that you may be tempted to set on the backburner (or may simply have forgotten about in the midst of the current crisis) are your trademark deadlines. The USPTO is not granting waivers of fees or extensions of time for most trademark related filings. These include:

• Deadlines for filing statements of use or requesting an extension of time;
• Deadlines for filing trademark renewals, including affidavits of continued use; and 
• Time periods related to proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. 

In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the importance of conducting a trademark search. In Part 2, we explained this idea of the “likelihood of confusion” and what to look for in that trademark search. And in Part 3, we discussed how to register your trademarks with the USPTO. But once your trademark is registered, it’s your job to protect it and enforce your rights. To do so, you must file certain maintenance documents in a timely manner and actively police your trademark.

To recap, in Part 1 of this series, we discussed the importance of conducting a trademark search, and in Part 2, we explained this idea of the “likelihood of confusion” and what to look for in that trademark search. Assuming your trademarks aren’t confusingly similar with that of another company offering related goods or services, how do you go about actually registering your trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)?

In Part 1, we discussed the importance of conducting a trademark search, preferably before investing too much into a brand only to learn that your trademark cannot be registered or, worse, infringes someone else's trademark. The most common reason for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to refuse a trademark registration is because there is a "likelihood of confusion" between the mark you applied for and an already registered mark. Put simply, in order to protect consumers, two trademarks generally cannot be "confusingly similar" to one another.

The question isn't whether your trademark is identical to someone else's. The question is how similar the two trademarks in question are and whether both marks are being used for related goods and services. For example, you wouldn't be able to trademark "McDonald's Burger Joint" for obvious reasons, but you could make a good argument to trademark "McDonald's Financial Services" because burgers and financial services are not related goods or services.