Five-day Turnaround: Counsel Welcome USPTO Efficiency

Stakeholders have expressed frustration with how long the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) takes to process trademark applications. On average, examiners take 8.1 months to issue a first office action and 14.6 months to register or abandon an applicant. This is close to the USPTO’s target of 8.4 months for a first office action and 14.4 months to register or abandon a mark.

Data shows that between 2008 and 2020, the target for the examiner’s first office action was 2.5 to 3.5 months. This increased to 4.5 months in 2021 and 7.6 months in 2022.

The USPTO’s website says that it aims to process letters of protest within 60 days, however as of April 2024, it’s taking an average of five days.

Attorneys have expressed mixed feelings about the trademark application processing times. Finnegan partner Danny Awdeh told Managing Intellectual Property, "We haven't seen the prompt action on letters of protest necessarily translate into faster examination of the application."

Danny emphasized the importance of letters of protest for brand owners concerned about new applications. He said, "It's an important process to call out what the brand owner considers to be critical evidence for the USPTO to consider, in the hope that it will make a refusal during examination."

Read “Five-day Turnaround: Counsel Welcome USPTO Efficiency”