A trademark opposition is a formal objection to the registering of a trademark. A formal Notice of Opposition must be filed in the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) within the thirty days following the publication of the offending mark in The Trademark Office Gazette. The Trademark Office Gazette is published by the USPTO each Tuesday. It contains bibliographic information and a representative drawing for each mark published, including a list of mark cancellations and mark renewals. There are many reasons why a party will oppose a trademark registration. For example, they may believe that:

• A trademark application is too similar to their own registered mark; or 
  
• A trademark application, if filed, would infringe or limit their own common law mark.
  

Any interested third party can file a Notice of Opposition. Oppositions can be complex and costly and must be filed in the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), the adjudicative body of the USPTO, within the thirty days following the publication of the offending mark in The Trademark Office Gazette. This period is known as the trademark opposition period. The trademark Applicant is then given thirty days to respond to the Notice of Opposition and file an answer with the TTAB. Once all pleadings are filed (opposition and response), the TTAB will issue a scheduling order detailing how the trademark opposition proceeds and provide specific deadlines for certain actions to be taken. A trademark opposition proceeds similarly to  litigation in Federal Court; however, it is without a jury and limited to rulings based on paper filings and not oral argument. A trademark opposer or trademark applicant cannot request a jury trial and there are no court hearings in TTAB proceedings that require an actual appearance of counsel. Nearly everything is done in writing, although the parties may request phone conferences with the TTAB interlocutory attorney assigned to each case. While oral hearings before the TTAB may be requested, most TTAB parties do not request oral hearings. 

Our Dallas trademark attorneys can help you file trademark oppositions and trademark cancellations with the trademark office. If you consider opposing a trademark, we can advise you before filing an opposition or cancellation with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Ultimately, a trademark owner must monitor the market and the USPTO Trademark Office Gazette for potential trademark infringement and take swift action to prevent the erosion of goodwill and the economic value of a mark or brand. 

A coexistence agreement is an agreement between two or more trademark owners wherein those parties define the rights, restrictions, and obligations concerning marketplace coexistence of their respective trademarks, service marks, and trade names. Such a coexistence agreement must be drafted with due consideration of the trademark uses of each party. Not all trademark coexistence agreements are beneficial; A senior trademark user must be cautious when entering into a coexistence agreement with competitors operating within their natural zone of trademark expansion. It's important to note that while both parties may declare in a coexistence agreement that there is no consumer confusion between their trademarks and brands, that may not be the case. A senior user can weaker its brand control in subsequent lawsuits with other similarly situated competitors through an inappropriate coexistence agreement.

Our Dallas trademark attorneys are skilled in various areas of law and can assist with the following:

• Filing and registering U.S. trademarks; 
  
• Filing and registering international  trademarks; 
  
• Trademark enforcement; 
  
• Trademark infringement analysis; 
  
• Trademark license negotiations; and  
  
• Trademark portfolio management.