If the USPTO has cancelled your federal trademark registration for a missed maintenance filing, you can ask to have it restored by filing a request for reinstatement of a cancelled trademark registration. You generally have two months from the date the USPTO issued the cancellation notice to act. The filing has to include the overdue maintenance document, a current specimen showing the mark in use, a sworn statement that the delay was unintentional, and the required fees.
Move quickly. The clock is short, and the fixes available after it runs out are narrow.
The Two-Month Window
Your reinstatement request must be filed within two months of the issue date on the USPTO’s cancellation notice. The deadline runs from the date the notice was issued, not the date you opened it. A notice sitting in a spam folder or landing at an old address does not stop that clock.
If you never received the notice at all, the rule shifts slightly. You have two months from the date you actually became aware of the cancellation, but no later than six months after the date the USPTO’s electronic records show the registration as cancelled or expired. In that situation, you also have to include a sworn declaration stating you did not receive the notice.
Past six months, the only remaining option is a Petition to the Director asking for a waiver of the timeliness rule based on extraordinary circumstances. This is a high bar and not a reliable backup.
Reinstatement, Not “Petition to Revive”
People often search for a “petition to revive” when they want their cancelled registration back, but that term applies to abandoned trademark applications, not cancelled registrations. For a registration that was cancelled because you missed a Section 8 declaration or a Section 9 renewal, the correct procedure is called a request for reinstatement.
The two paths overlap in substance — both require a showing of unintentional delay and follow the same deadline structure — but they use different forms and different regulatory pathways. Picking the wrong one wastes the fee and the time you do not have.
What the Filing Must Include
A complete request for reinstatement has several pieces, and leaving one out can produce a deficiency or an outright denial.
- The registration number, which you can find on your original registration certificate or by searching the Trademark Status and Document Retrieval (TSDR) system.
- The overdue maintenance document itself. If cancellation resulted from a missed Section 8 declaration, you file a completed Section 8 form. If a Section 9 renewal was also missed, include that too.
- A current specimen of use. For goods, that typically means a product label, packaging, or a webpage screenshot showing the mark, a price, and an add-to-cart button. For services, use advertising, website screenshots, or signage showing the mark in connection with the services. It must be a real example of current use, not a mockup.
- A sworn statement of unintentional delay, signed by someone with direct knowledge of the facts.
- The required fees. The Section 8 declaration fee is $325 per class filed electronically ($425 per class on paper). A Section 9 renewal carries its own per-class fee. A petition fee applies on top of the maintenance filing fee; check the current USPTO fee schedule before submitting.
Proving the Delay Was Unintentional
The sworn statement is not a formality. You have to affirm that missing the filing was not a deliberate choice. Clerical errors, miscalculated deadlines, staff turnover that let a filing fall through the cracks, and failure to receive USPTO correspondence are the kinds of situations that typically qualify. An intentional delay is one where the owner consciously let the registration lapse and later changed course.
The USPTO generally accepts the owner’s statement at face value unless something in the record suggests otherwise. The statement must come from someone with firsthand knowledge of the circumstances, not a boilerplate signature from someone with no involvement.
How to File Through TEAS
The filing goes through the Trademark Electronic Application System on the USPTO website. There is no paper shortcut for most filers. You open the correct post-registration maintenance form, and the form itself integrates the reinstatement request. As you fill in the late maintenance document, the system prompts you to address the lateness and enter your statement of unintentional delay.
Before you can use TEAS you need a USPTO.gov account with two-step authentication and verified identity. Identity verification is a one-time process handled online through ID.me, using a government-issued photo ID and either a selfie or a video chat, or by mailing a notarized paper verification form to the USPTO. During verification you select a user role. If you are the trademark owner filing without an attorney, choose the “Trademark owner” role.
After you enter the required information, upload the specimen, and provide payment details, you sign electronically and submit. TEAS calculates the total fees, combining the petition fee and the maintenance document filing fee. Save the electronic confirmation receipt.
What Happens After You File
A USPTO examining attorney reviews the submission. The examiner checks that the request was timely, that the unintentional delay statement is adequate, that the maintenance document is complete, and that the specimen is acceptable. Deficient specimens are a common trouble spot.
If everything is in order, the USPTO grants the request and issues a notice confirming reinstatement. The registration returns to active status and is treated as having been continuously registered, which preserves your priority date and nationwide constructive notice of ownership.
If the examiner finds a problem, you may receive an office action identifying the deficiency and giving you a set period to fix it. An unacceptable specimen, for instance, does not automatically kill the filing, but you have to respond within the deadline in the office action.
If the Request Is Denied
You can file a request for reconsideration within two months of the denial (or two months of learning about it if you did not receive the decision, subject to the same six-month outer limit). Reconsideration uses the TEAS Petition to Director form and carries an additional petition fee. It is worth pursuing if you believe the examiner misread your facts or you have additional evidence.
A registrant adversely affected by the Director’s decision on a Section 8 or Section 9 matter can appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit or file a civil action for judicial review. For most owners, filing a new application will be faster and cheaper than an appeal.
If the Deadline Has Already Passed
When reinstatement is off the table because the deadline has run or the request was denied, filing a new trademark application is the primary alternative. You lose the original registration’s priority date, but if you have been using the mark continuously, you still hold common law trademark rights in the geographic areas where you have been operating.
The USPTO offers a Request to Make Special that lets you ask for expedited examination of the new application. To qualify, the mark must be identical to the one in the cancelled registration, and the goods or services must be identical to or narrower than what the old registration covered. That can meaningfully shorten the wait for a new registration.
Keep using the mark in commerce while the new application is pending. If a third party files for or begins using a confusingly similar mark during the gap, resolving it becomes significantly more complicated and potentially expensive.
When the USPTO Caused the Cancellation
Sometimes the office itself is at fault, whether by failing to process a timely maintenance document, losing a submission, or misapplying a payment. If you can document that a USPTO error caused the cancellation, you can file a request for reinstatement due to office error. There is no fee for this type of reinstatement. If a petition fee is charged when you file through the electronic system, the USPTO refunds it once the office error is confirmed. The same deadline structure applies: file within two months of becoming aware of the cancellation.
You will need documentation showing your original filing was timely or that the mistake was on the USPTO’s end. Filing confirmations, payment receipts, and correspondence with the office are exactly the kind of records to have on hand.