Intellectual Property - Trademarks - Use Requirements

If a registered trademark is not used over a period of five years, the right to it can, under certain circumstances, be lost. This might happen in a case where a registrant A has a right to a trademark but has not used the trademark for five years, and an applicant B, who wants to register a similar mark and for whom the unused trademark of A is an obstacle demands that A's trademark is deleted. If noone objects, an unused trademark might remain in the register, in theory, forever.

There is no supervision of the usage of a trademark, but in a case as described above, one might lose one's right to a trademark if one can not prove a usage of the trademark. However, if the registrant shows an acceptable reason for not using the mark the right to it is not lost. Further, usage by an assignee is considered as if the registrant has used the mark himself.