Namealike

How to oppose a trademark

Updated October 18, 2026. Fees from the USPTO fee schedule (effective January 19, 2025). This is general information, not legal advice.

You can oppose a US trademark application within 30 days of its publication in the Official Gazette. You can get that window extended, but only if you ask before it closes.

The timeline

1. Filing. The application appears in USPTO records within days.
2. Examination. An examining attorney reviews it, usually months after filing.
3. Publication. If approved, it's published in the weekly Trademark Official Gazette. The 30-day opposition window starts here.
4. Registration. If nobody opposes, it registers. Challenging it after that means a cancellation proceeding.

A watch that alerts you at filing gives you months of warning before the 30-day window even opens.

Extensions

Ask the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) for more time before the 30 days run out (TBMP chapter 200):

• First 30-day extension: free.
• A 90-day extension, or a second 60-day one: $200 per application, filed electronically.
• A final 60-day extension: $400 per application.
• At most three requests, and no more than 180 days from publication in total.

Filing the opposition

A notice of opposition is filed with the TTAB through ESTTA and costs $600 per class opposed (electronic filing). It states why the mark shouldn't register. The most common ground is likelihood of confusion with your earlier mark. An opposition is a legal proceeding much like a short lawsuit, so most owners hire a trademark attorney for it.

Before you file

• Read the application on the USPTO's TSDR system: the exact goods and services, the owner and the status.
• Ask whether buyers would really confuse the two. Do the names look or sound alike, and are the goods related?
• Consider contacting the applicant. Many conflicts end with a letter.
• Talk to a trademark attorney before the deadline, not on the last day.