Per a Federal Register Notice today from the USPTO, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) has extended the time period to respond to a complaint in a TTAB trial proceeding to sixty (60) days.
Upon the initiation of a TTAB proceeding, the TTAB will issue an institution order setting the schedule for such a proceeding, including the time to file an answer or acceptable response. The Code of Federal Regulations requires the notice of institution to designate a time to respond “not less than thirty days from the mailing date of the notice.” 37 C.F.R. 2.105(a) (opposition proceedings); 37 C.F.R. 2.113(a) (cancellation proceedings). However, it was customary for such institution orders to set a forty (40) day response time.
Effective September 4, 2025, institution orders will set a sixty (60) day response time. This change follows a November 1, 2023 amendment to Madrid Regulation Rule 17(2)(vii) setting a time limit “which shall be no less than two months” in such proceedings. As a member of the Madrid Protocol, the United States was given until February 1, 2025 to implement a similar change in domestic practice or provide notice that it did not intend to adopt the amendment. The USPTO has now adopted the amendment.
An asterisk looms over this 60-day period, however: “[t]he TTAB, after setting the initial 60-day schedule, may, in subsequent scheduling orders, reset the time for an answer or acceptable response to be shorter than a 60-day period.” Although we have yet to see what this looks like in practice, this caveat suggests that 60-days is only guaranteed to a responding party by the initial institution order; extensions of the trial schedule will not guarantee an extension of time to file an initial response. It is presumed that the TTAB’s discretion is at play here now, but it remains unclear what will influence such a decision.
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