Trademark Red Tape: Post-Registration Proof Pilot To Go Permanent

Regular readers of the Trademark and Copyright Law Blog and our Trademark Red Tape" column may recall our previous report on a pilot study by the United States Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) about post-registration proof of use.  Under current PTO practice, a specimen demonstrating use of a mark on a single good or service within a class is sufficient to maintain registration for an entire class, but owners of registrations selected under the pilot study were required to provide proof of use for additional goods and services. For the study, the PTO selected certain Section 8 and Section 71 maintenance filings (periodic proof of use filings for trademark registrants) and subjected them to enhanced evidentiary requirements. The underlying goal of the study was to evaluate and address the large amount of trademark "deadwood" or "chaff" — goods and services on which the mark is not actually used — on the register, and especially with regard to broad, multi-class,