In response to the COVID19 outbreak, the United States Patent and Trademark Office [USPTO] has put in place extraordinary measures to alleviate some of the costs associated with registering and maintaining trademarks and patents in the United States.

 The Coronavirus epidemic is forcing both American and foreign companies to limit current expenses wherever possible. However, maintaining and protecting intellectual property such as trademarks and patents is essential to doing business in the United States.

 Therefore, USPTO has waived the fees for restoring trademark registrations that have expired, since it is currently impossible for the owner of the trademark to reply to the USPTO during this period of crisis.

 Following the historic approval of a $ 2 trillion private and business aid package [including $350 billion in grants to small and medium-sized businesses], this is another example of how the US federal government is working to address the concrete needs of companies, in order to facilitate their development.

 We recommend anyone who sells products or services in the United States to register their trademark, logo or patent directly with USPTO to ensure full territorial and legal coverage. The USPTO recently issued a rulemaking proposal to raise its fees after Oct. 1^st, so action should be taken now to ensure that the process of registering your marks runs smoothly.   

Read More:

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/u-s-patent-and-trademark-office-set-to-75930/

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/uspto-announces-further-filing-relief-19633/

https://www.uspto.gov/about-us/news-updates/responding-covid-19-joint-message-support-inventors-uspto-and-epo