On My Mind Blog

A non-U.S. party can obtain a U.S. trademark or service mark registration based on a home country registration and without use of the mark in the U.S. However, a Declaration of Use or Excusable Nonuse must be filed in the U.S. within six years after the date of registration plus a 6-month grace period.  If that Declaration is not filed, that U.S. registration will be cancelled and given no further effect after the end of the six-year period.

The line between a merely descriptive term and a generic term can be difficult to draw.  We previously wrote about this in “Avoid Selecting a Generic Term as Your Trademark.”