Once the USPTO publishes a trademark application, anyone who believes the registration would harm them has 30 days to challenge it in a trademark opposition. Filing costs $600 per class, and the case runs like a small lawsuit before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). If you are the applicant, the TTAB’s notice sets an answer deadline, and missing it can end your application.
What a Trademark Opposition Is
A trademark opposition is a proceeding in which one party, the opposer, asks the TTAB to refuse registration of another party’s pending application. The TTAB is an administrative tribunal inside the USPTO that decides only whether a mark can be registered; claims about the right to use a mark, infringement, and money damages go to federal court, which the guide to trademark infringement and what to do about it covers. Only applications for the Principal Register are published for opposition.
To file, the opposer must show an entitlement to a statutory cause of action (the TTAB’s term for what used to be called standing): a real interest in the outcome and a reasonable belief that the registration would damage it. The Federal Circuit set out this test in Corcamore, LLC v. SFM, LLC (2020). In practice, the opposer is usually a business that owns a similar mark or needs to use the same descriptive words.
What Published for Opposition Means
When the examiner approves an application, the USPTO publishes the mark in the Official Gazette, its weekly journal of approved marks. The status in the USPTO’s TSDR database changes to “Published for Opposition.” Publication starts the 30-day opposition period.
If nobody opposes, a use-based application moves on to registration, and an intent-to-use application receives a notice of allowance. The guide to how long it takes to get a trademark shows where publication falls in the full timeline.
When You Can File: The Opposition Window and Extensions
You must file a notice of opposition within 30 days of the publication date, or within an extension you requested before that deadline. Extensions can push the deadline out to 180 days after publication and no further.
| Extension request | Length | When the TTAB grants it | USPTO fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| First request, option A | 30 days | Automatically, on request | $0 |
| First request, option B | 90 days | For good cause | $200 |
| Second request, after a 30-day first extension | 60 days | For good cause | $200 |
| Final request | 60 days | Only with the applicant’s consent or extraordinary circumstances | $400 |
Each request has to be filed electronically before the current deadline runs out, and the opposition must later be filed in the name of the person who got the extension. Extension requests far outnumber oppositions: the TTAB received 19,130 of them in fiscal year 2025, against 7,650 oppositions. The extra time lets a potential opposer investigate the applicant or open talks before paying to file.
Common Trademark Opposition Grounds
An opposer can raise any statutory ground that defeats the applicant’s right to register. The TTAB’s manual gives these examples, among others:
| Ground | What the opposer claims |
|---|---|
| Likelihood of confusion, Section 2(d) | The mark is close enough to the opposer’s earlier registered or used mark that buyers are likely to be confused. The opposer must show earlier rights. |
| Descriptiveness, Section 2(e) | The mark merely describes the goods, is primarily geographic, or is primarily a surname. |
| False connection, Section 2(a) | The mark falsely suggests a connection with the opposer’s name or identity. |
| Name of a living person, Section 2(c) | The mark includes a particular living person’s name without that person’s consent. |
| Dilution | The mark would dilute the opposer’s famous mark. The opposer must show its mark was famous before the applicant’s earliest priority date. |
| No bona fide use or intent | The applicant was not using the mark when it filed a use-based application, or had no real intent to use it when it filed an intent-to-use application. |
| Failure to function | The words or design do not work as a brand, for example a common slogan. |
| Fraud | The applicant knowingly made false, material statements to the USPTO. |
| Not the owner | The applicant does not own the mark. |
Likelihood of confusion is the same test an examiner applies when refusing an application, but in an opposition a competitor makes the argument and brings its own evidence of sales and customer confusion.
How to File an Opposition to a Trademark Application
- Look up the application in TSDR and note the publication date. Count 30 days from that date.
- If you need more time to investigate or negotiate, file an extension request before the deadline.
- Prepare the notice of opposition. Select each ground and write a short, plain statement of the facts behind it. If you rely on your own registrations, list them by number, because the TTAB will not let you rely at trial on a registration you did not plead.
- File the notice through TTAB Center, the TTAB’s electronic filing system, and pay $600 for each class you oppose. If two companies oppose together, each pays per class.
You can file a notice of opposition without a lawyer, but the case then follows the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and you cannot rely on a ground you did not plead unless the TTAB lets you amend the notice.
How the Trademark Opposition Process Works at the TTAB
After it receives a complete notice, the TTAB issues an institution order. That order serves the applicant and sets the full schedule of the trademark opposition proceedings.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Answer | The applicant admits or denies each claim and raises any defenses. |
| Discovery conference | The parties discuss settlement and plan discovery, sometimes with a Board attorney on the call. It must happen before discovery opens. |
| Discovery | 180 days of written questions, document requests, and depositions, with initial disclosures due within the first 30 days. |
| Trial periods | Each side submits testimony and evidence during its assigned period. |
| Briefs and hearing | The parties file written briefs. Either side can request an oral hearing for a $500 fee. |
| Decision | A panel of judges decides whether the mark can register. |
The dates move when the parties agree to extend them or the TTAB suspends the case.
What to Do If Someone Opposes Your Application
The notice of institution tells you when your answer is due. By rule the answer period is at least 30 days. The TTAB has long allowed 40 days and is moving to 60, so use the date in your order.
If you miss the deadline, the TTAB issues a notice of default and gives you 30 days to show good cause for the delay. If you do not, it enters judgment against you and your application is refused.
Once you know the deadline, you have four realistic options:
- File an answer and defend the application.
- Negotiate a settlement with the opposer.
- Narrow the application, for example by deleting goods that overlap with the opposer’s. During an opposition this requires the opposer’s consent and TTAB approval, or a granted motion.
- Abandon the application. If you do this without the opposer’s written consent, the TTAB enters judgment against you.
If the opposer relies on a registration that you believe is invalid, a claim to cancel it is a compulsory counterclaim. You must file it with your answer if you already know the grounds.
An opposition differs from an office action refusing your trademark application because the other side is a private business with its own evidence and its own reasons to settle or fight. A trademark opposition attorney handles pleadings, discovery, and negotiation. The overview of what a trademark attorney does explains how that litigation work differs from filing work. If you need representation, you can find a trademark attorney in the directory.
Trademark Opposition Cost and Timeline
Government fees are the small part of the cost.
| USPTO fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Notice of opposition | $600 per class |
| Extension of time to oppose | $0, $200, or $400 per request |
| Request for oral hearing | $500 |
Attorney fees depend on how far the case goes. In the flat-fee schedules and estimates that trademark firms publish, preparing a notice of opposition starts around $1,800 and an answer runs about $1,800. Responding to and reviewing discovery adds roughly $3,000 to $10,000, and each side’s trial work can run $7,000 to $30,000 or more. A case that settles early may cost $3,000 to $15,000 in total. Hourly work usually requires a retainer of $3,000 to $5,000 up front. The guide to trademark attorney cost explains how flat and hourly billing compare.
Trial cases that the TTAB decided in fiscal year 2025 took a median of 142 weeks from start to finish, about two years and nine months.
Settling an Opposition
In fiscal year 2025, the TTAB decided 190 trial cases on the merits, while parties filed 7,650 oppositions and 2,897 cancellations. Most cases end some other way: a settlement, a withdrawal, a default, or an abandoned application.
A settlement can narrow the applicant’s goods or services, change the mark, set out in a coexistence agreement how each side will use its mark, or have the applicant withdraw the application. The parties can ask the TTAB to suspend the case while they negotiate, and the TTAB often approves a joint request automatically.
An opposer can withdraw without prejudice (keeping the right to file again) any time before the applicant answers. After the answer, withdrawal without prejudice needs the applicant’s written consent. If you are the applicant, open settlement talks before discovery starts, when each side has spent the least.