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
- Filing. The application appears in USPTO records within days.
- Examination. An examining attorney reviews it, usually months after filing.
- Publication. If approved, it's published in the weekly Trademark Official Gazette. The 30-day opposition window starts here.
- 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.